Ritz Magazine May 2015 Issue

SOUTH INDIA’S PREMIER UBER LIFESTYLE MAGAZINE

`100

MAY 2015 VOL 11 | ISSUE 10

Weapon of MaSS Seduction

RANA dAGGUbATI ON TURNING 30, HIS IdEAL WOMAN ANd THE bIGGEST bLESSING IN HIS cAREER

Jyothika’S

NEW FILM HAS A POWERFUL MESSAGE FOR WOMEN. WE FINd OUT WHAT!

PROMINENT SOUTH INdIAN bUSINESS LEAdERS ON WHy AN OccASIONAL dIGITAL dETOx IS vITAL TO SUccESS ANd STAyING HAPPy

are Men

turning

MORE cONScIOUS OF THEIR LOOkS THAN WOMEN? A TRENd REPORT

my view I have always believed it is important for women to work and have a career even after marriage and kids. A working woman achieves many things - respect for herself, financial independence and the huge sense of freedom that comes with it, greater financial sustainability for the family and of course, the ability to make decisions without the fear of being thought of as irrelevant due to her non-contribution to the family income. To be fair, a working woman who contributes financially to the family also eases the enormous stress on her husband as the sole breadwinner thereby reducing the frustrations that may arise in him due to various reasons such as the pressures of his own job and increasing expenditure in the family.

So it was truly lovely to see Jyothika, one of the most admired actresses of recent times who is returning to the silver screen this month, echo similar sentiments as she talks about the importance of women getting back to work, in a candid interview with us. By getting back to acting after marriage and two kids, Jyothika has shown that she herself truly practises what she now advocates for other women.

I do hope you enjoy reading this super loaded May edition of RITZ, featuring the handsome Rana Daggubati on the cover. Our interesting features from across several cities in South India stand ample testimony to our relevance and prominence as the only pan-South luxury lifestyle magazine.

Happy reading!

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May 2015

Inside 12 Buzzin’

If they’re creating a buzz in your city, we’re capturing those moments

20 New Products

From quirky bags to elegant jewels and happening shoes, SS ’15 collections hit the stores

22 RSVP

If you missed out on the most happening parties in your city, we didn’t. Catch exclusive glimpses of the Mercedes Benz Luxe Royale Night that rocked Chennai

28 Haute Stuff

Vira Shah takes us down the ‘70s memory lane with Fringe Tales. Also find out what’s new and must be part of your wardrobe this summer

34 Look Book

Pooja Kumar lights up for the camera in a hot ’n happening photoshoot

39 Trending now

What is it about technology that is so alluring and addictive? Try as we might to deny it, the truth is we are hooked on the digital world. We explore the need to undergo periodic digital detox

44 Trending now

Research reveals that the modern man is more image-obsessed than ever, spending over four years of his life perfecting his appearance

48 Cover Story

He’s hot! He’s handsome! And oh baby, he is so desirable! Women go weak in their knees when he lights up the screen with his machismo and men go green with envy when he does what they wished they could. Rana Daggubati elicits mass hysteria with his delectable looks

54 Personality

After ruling the roost for years, Jyothika is all set for a comeback with a lead role in 36 Vayadhinile

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58 Design Elements

Not every space has a story tell. We showcase three restaurants across different cities that grab you by the eyeballs with their unique, individualistic design

70 Wanderlust

Saad Bin Jung traces the rawness and inner beauty of the Dark Continent with a thrilling first person account of how Africa never ceases to amaze him

75 Over A Cuppa

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They’re the future of tomorrow and they’re gearing up to take the world by storm.

Meet dynamic student entrepreneurs from the Deccan

83 Spotlight

Meet some of South India’s top propagators of molecular gastronomy - a much debated school of culinary and gastronomic phenomena

94 Foodies Inc.

The restaurant with an ultra-long but cute ’n quirky name captures the idiosyncrasies of the Parsi / Irani community

97 Corridors Of Power

It has been an eventful two decades for Davidson Devasirvatham, IPS Inspector General of Police (Admin) TN writes Sanjay Pinto

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EDITOR & PUBLISHER ARUNA R KRISHNAN Regional EDITOR - BENGALURU ARCHANA SHENOY Regional EDITOR - HYDERABAD VANAJA BANAGIRI HYDERABAD CORRESPONDENT DEEKSHA MARUR chennai CORRESPONDENT diya subramanian GUEST COLUMNISTs SANJAY PINTO, sujaya chandran GENERAL MANAGER - MARKETING PRAVEEN KUMAR M MANAGER CLIENT SERVICE SWATHI RAMAKRISHNAN Designer narayanan sathish MARKETING consultant - bengaluru sanjay jariwal EVENTS AND FEATURES PHOTOGRAPHER - CHENNAI M.GURUNATH PRABHU EVENTS AND FEATURES PHOTOGRAPHER - BENGALURU FAHEEM HUSSAIN To advertise in RITZ, call Praveen Kumar on +91 98419 73090 /+91 44 4211 3871 All correspondence should be addressed to: RITZ, 7th Floor, Sigma Wing, Raheja Towers, 177, Anna Salai, Chennai 600002. Contact: 42113871 / 2 Email: ritzmag@rediffmail.com or ritzmag@gmail.com Edited and Published by Aruna R Krishnan from 7th Floor, Sigma Wing, Raheja Towers, 177 Anna Salai, Chennai 600002.

All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without written permission is strictly prohibited. RITZ is not responsible for unsolicited material. RITZ assumes no responsibility for the veracity and authenticity of the advertisements published herein. Readers are requested to make appropriate enquiries before incurring any expenses or acting on medical recommendations or otherwise in relation to any advertisement or article published herein. Also views in articles published herein are those of the respective authors only. RITZ does not necessarily subscribe to these views.

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buzz in’

Bengaluru

Fashion’s Latest Sensation Bengaluru’s fashion sensation Sounak Sen Barat of House of Three, had some of the city’s most happening faces, fashionista Ila Naidu, Grammy winner Ricky Kej and Rakesh Thakore of Abraham & Thakore walk the ramp for him at the Karnataka Fashion Week. While Ila stunned all in a light and airy khadi Jamdani sari, Ricky and Rakesh looked dashing in sherwanis designed by Sounak. The designer showcased his new collection J’adore Jamdani, a project close to his heart for he has worked diligently with weavers to create a new fabric blend using Kora and Jamdani, resulting in a light, soft and extremely malleable new material that’s perfect for the intense Indian summer.

“The idea was to elevate khadi to a new standard in fashion,” said the talented designer.

Bengaluru

Cook-off With Ritu Dalmia Celebrity Chef Ritu Dalmia, known for her Diva cafes and infectious personality, was in the city to promote Fisher & Paykel’s social kitchens in Bengaluru. The evening, which was hosted at JW Marriott, saw enthusiastic gourmands interact with the chef and partake in a cooking contest put together by her.

On her part Dalmia whipped up her take on an exotic Malayalee delicacy - the Meen Moilee, which she served with a lightly spiced quinoa pilaf. Participants from the cooking contest spent a lot of time in her effervescent company and learned a trick or two in the kitchen from the lady herself.

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buzz in’

hyderabad

Double Cheer For Sania The year so far has proved to be a lucky one for Tennis player Sania Mirza. She’s managed to win hearts on and off the field. Well, with the help of her fans and her skill as a tennis player, of course!

Apart from her winning the World No. 1 title, she’s been declared the Most Desirable Female too. A different kind of feather in her hat, eh?

Kudos Sania, cheers to the double joy!

hyderabad

Is it a bird? Is it a plane?

No, it’s Superwoman! And she’s going to be on the “A trip to Unicorn Island Tour” in India the entire month of May. The youtuber got an astounding response from her fans, which led to a massive sell out of the tickets in less than 24 hours! Post the sell out, Lilly Singh along with Culture Machine has now added extra shows to the schedule! Lilly will now be performing 7 shows in three of the four planned cities in India, with 2 shows each in Delhi, Mumbai and Bengaluru and 1 in Hyderabad. She comes to Hyderabad on 23rd before ending her tour in Bengaluru!

Hyderabadi fans can’t wait to watch her “awesome sauce” performance and can’t stop talking about it.

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New

Products

Dazzling Arm Candy

A part of the Colour Pop Collection, these cool bags from Furla have a hint of retro with eye-catching appeal. The fusion cleverly combines tradition and experimentation, clean lines, innovation and surprising construction, to characterise these new bags from the brand’s SS’15 line.

Available in quirky shades of green, blue, yellow and even metallic combination tones.

Riviera Inspired Palette Enthused by the luxurious and hi-fashion Riviera lifestyle, Blackberry’s new collection draws inspiration from the picturesque landscape of The French Riviera. This collection expresses the richly detailed sense of culture, love for wellcrafted garments and elegance through a wide range of apparels. It speaks of European flavour, but with a contemporary twist. The sea, the palm trees, sand, clear skies, food, flora and fauna, wines and colourfully painted villas dictate tones for the palette. Fabrics are airy, silhouettes are dressy but not stiff. It’s the perfect look for today’s metrosexual man!

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Products

New

Elegance Incarnate Spark up your summer look with the new Show Stopper collection from Caratlane.com.

Specially curated by the brand, this line comprises of nineteen exquisite statement earrings and head-turning pendants set in diamond, 18 karat gold, rose gold and gemstones. Not your same ’ol baubles, these designs are decidedly contemporary and distinctive. A definite addition to our lust list!

A Notch Above Just Style Corneliani, the luxury Italian menswear brand presents a staggering collection of footwear in its SS ’15 collection. Ranging from uber cool to ultra formal and tasteful, each pair is crafted with clean designs and style to enhance and complement a gentleman’s look. Truly, a collection that is opulent and tasteful.

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RITZ may 2015

RSVP

Bengaluru

Rabbit with his groovy taste Chris Gayle rocked The Black g skills. The hard-hitter from in music and super bartendin set of foot-tapping numbers n the Caribbean played his ow ils for guests as they crowded and mixed some potent cockta es and autographs. Happy to around the big man for selfi sman provided a minute to humour his fans, the RCB bat with cute pictures and happy minute account, accompanied @henrygayle. smiles, on his Twitter handle

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RSVP

hyderabad

ional and international artists It was an evening where nat tional Novotel Hyderabad Conven showcased their works at the and on ers Pet l Nei GM by the Centre. The show was hosted ir the artists who showcased the ong Am an.

Log a Lon by d curate f Jef , Rao ar ask radha Thakur, Â Bh works were Rangoli Garg, Anu heesh Kanna.

Murray, Lona Logan and Sat

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RITZ may 2015

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RSVP 26

RITZ may 2015

Chennai

tion rian of MMRT 42 in associa Suman Voora and George Che of ht nig a ale Roy e Lux ed with Mercedes Benz organis the latest line of clothes by resplendent fashion featuring Park, Chennai. Celebrities like Vivek Karaunakaran at The ah, Karun Chandhok, Vikram Cot Abdul Qadir, Arvind Swami, ar walked kum ath Sar and ikaa Rad r, Murli and Regeena Jeppiaa ly designed for them by Vivek the ramp in creations special Karunakaran.

RITZ may 2015

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haute stuff 28

RITZ may 2015

Fringe Tales Text: Vira Shah

SWISH GOES THE SEVENTIES The return of the seventies this season brings with it the large sunglasses, wide leg pants and its most interesting characteristic - the Fringe. The catwalks showed us fringes and tassels attached on clothes and accessories in all their swinging glory. Adopt this trend in its new avatar to take it from its boho hippie step-sister to modern day glam cool. The long and short of the fringe is its statement-making quality and the ease with which it blends into your everyday outfit whether you’re getting dressed for work, romantic date or a music festival.

STYLE NOTES MUST-HAVE: A crossbody sling or bucket bag in tan with an extra long fringe.

SWISH : Pick a piece with a fringe long enough to create a flirty movement when you walk DIY : Make your own statement fringe by slashing up a basic tee and teaming it with chic accessories.

Create a pop of colour and movement by attaching a bright fringe onto your upturned jean cuff. Pair it with high-heeled pumps to add glamour.

RITZ may 2015

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haute stuff

Hand Painted Taveez Earrings from Amrapali ` 7600

Fringe Panel Top from Rena Love ` 3400

Metallic Gold Thin Chain Duster Earrings

by Ayesha Accessories ` 498

Tote from Jessica Simpson ` 6990 Quilted Duffle Bag in black from Forever New ` 3800

Rachana Reddy-Fringe Moon Necklace High Heel Peep Toes by Christian Louboutin available on matchesfashion ` 68,050

Tassel T-strap Sandals from Metro Shoes ` 1490

Macrame Woven Top by Tory Burch available on netaporter ` 36,890 approx

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RITZ may 2015

Drape Fringe Dress from Stella McCartney available on rocknshop.com ` 3,23,166

Sling Bag from Miss Bennett ` 1499

Crop Top from Soup by Sougat Paul available on Perniaspopupshop ` 6300

Clutch from Valentino available on mythesresa.com ` 68000 approx

Evening Bag by Cupidity available on koovs.com `2300

Midi Skirt from Burberry Prorsum ` 2,04,000 approx

Fringe Sandals from Charles and Keith ` 4799

Printed Tankini from elitify ` 3990

Metallic Loafers from Vans

RITZ may 2015

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haute stuff

KOOVS.COM collaborates with British Fashion designer Giles Deacon

Giles Deacon and Koovs.com have collaborated to release a capsule collection with Deacon’s trademark playfulness and vibrant prints. Giles Deacon is best known for challenging the traditional ideas of womenswear launching his own label in 2003 and collaborating with Mulberry, Converse, New Look and many other brands since. Deacon is scheduled to launch a global fashion line in collaboration with the Minions (of Despicable Me fame) later this year as well. The ‘Giles for Koovs’ collection features a mix of pop culture references and eclectic designs.

Consisting of ready-to-wear clothing, shoes, bags & sunglasses, the collection is priced between ` 395 and ` 2495.

Di Caprio’s Plans to build a Eco-Resort in Belize Start planning for your vacation in 2018, because Leonardo Di Caprio is opening an eco-resort on a private island that he bought off the coast of Belize. He believes Belize to be ‘Heaven on Earth’ and is developing his dream of a sustainable resort – ‘Blackadore Caye – a restorative island’ that will also give back to the environment by replanting mangroves, returning native animals to land and preventing any further damage from over-fishing. The luxury resort will have 68 resort villas and 48 private houses.

Kartell launches Madame Chairs - World of Emilio Pucci Edition Leading Italian design house Kartell collaborates with Emilio Pucci to create limited edition versions of their latest Philip Starck chair design – ‘Madame’.

The chairs use prints from Pucci’s ‘Cities of the world’ scarves project, created to celebrate its boutiques worldwide. The print on the scarves and chairs flaunt the brand’s trademark style yet portray the architecture, landscapes and fascinating details where the Pucci boutiques can be found – Paris, New York, Rome and Shanghai.

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look book

Pooja Kumar goes gaga over her sizzling, summer cover photo shoot for our sister publication, South Scope.

Located in ECR, the Reflection luxury villa is perfect eyecandy and has completely impressed Pooja. “This villa was absolutely beautiful and aesthetically done up, situated in the outskirts of the city. I loved the furniture and the colour scheme. It gave a modern feel. And the best part about shooting here was that, it felt like one big family hanging out together. It was really, something original and shooting was fun. You will want to work many hours in such an ambience.” says Pooja, who terms the theme of the photo shoot as ‘Fun time in summer’. “The sunglasses from Lawrence and Mayo added much to the photo shoot. They were very edgy,” says the star.

Photography by Karthik Srinivasan Luxury Villa from : Reflection Chennai ECR Designer eyewear from: Lawrence & Mayo Boutique Styling by Sujith Sudhakaran Make up and hair Naturals Lounge TTK Road Clothes Forever New & Tommy Hilfiger Jewellery Amethyst

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Eyewear Sponsored by

Photoshoot Powered by

Turning Up The Heat She’s the perfect blend of American spunk and Indian demureness. Pooja Kumar gives style a new definition with her hot bod and lissome ways.

RITZ may 2015

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look book

Photoshoot Powered by

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RITZ may 2015

Eyewear Sponsored by

Although she started her film journey in Tamil with Kadhal Rojavae in 2000, Pooja who has worked with Ulaganayagan Kamal Haasan in Vishwaroopam, is also the heroine of the recently-released Uttama Villain and will soon be seen with the South Indian superstar next in Vishwaroopam 2. It wouldn’t be wrong to say that she is currently one of Kamal Haasan’s hot favourites! With roots in Indian classical forms of dance like Bharatanatyam, Kuchipudi and Kathak and a background in theatre and modeling, Pooja says she is being offered many more interesting roles in Indian cinema, especially in Tamil.

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look book

Photoshoot Powered by

Pooja produced a short film, ‘1001 Auditions’, that was selected in nearly eight film festivals, including a nomination for ‘Best Short Film’ at the Stuttgart Film Festival in Germany. She has also produced a short film called ‘Shoot My Life’. “I will definitely want to make a feature film sometime soon,” she says.

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TRENDING Now

Disconnect To Reconnect What is it about technology that is so alluring and addictive?

Try as we might to deny it, the truth is we are hooked on the digital world, be it browsing, checking email, playing games, downloading music or simply texting. We spend so much of our time in the virtual realm that we are slowly, but surely losing contact with the human world.

RITZ gets chatting with some of the movers and shakers from South India to dwell on the pit-falls of being glued to electronic devices and understand whether or not it is necessary for us to sit back and find that elusive ‘off’ button, cut back on the digital stimulation and go on a much needed digital detox Text: Archana Shenoy (with inputs from Deeksha Marur, Vanaja Banagiri, Diya Subramanian) RITZ may 2015

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Consuming too much technology is like eating empty calories without adequate nutrients. The brain gets overloaded with information and needs some ‘unplugged’ time to reprocess everything stored within.

It’s true not everyone can switch off or unplug from technology for a set time each day, for it is critical to stay connected to work, family and friends. However, one must understand the need to impose upon themselves a periodic digital detox in order to stay sane and in human contact with the

moderation, digital included. The genie is out of the lamp; we cannot crawl back to mother’s womb but irresponsible use of technology, deploying it to serve humanity or inhumanity, is a choice we must make. I believe, in the past, the human track record, for it hasn’t been disappointing. Things have worked out overall.”

Interestingly, people are now even using technology to take breaks from technology itself. One app called Freedom can be downloaded and set to block Internet

Mittu Chandilya There has never been a better way of reaching your customers, employees and all stakeholders in such a direct manner. Our smartphones are probably the one thing we can’t leave home without

Indraneel Ganguly It is important for us to recognise that just being on a network, with a device and on a channel, does not make us better thinkers, doers and communicators

rest of the world.

Renowned author and business leader Subroto Bagchi, best known for co-founding Mindtree explains: “When the steam engine arrived or the first flight took off, people had some inkling of the impact but they had no idea of the consequences – whether negative or positive. As the world goes irreversibly digital, we are as ignorant of what the consequences would be in 10, 50 and 100 years, downstream. How may we change and morph and mutate? All I can say is that we should do everything in

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access on a Mac or PC for up to eight hours to allow users time for offline productivity. Anti-Social is another productivity application for Macs that turns off the social media parts of the Internet. Digital Detox is a free app for Android smartphones that was inspired

by Adbuster’s Digital Detox week and irrevocably disables a user’s phone for a user-specified period of time.

Disconnecting from technology has not stopped there. The trend has manifested itself as a sales tool in the travel industry

with the creation of digital-detox vacation packages!

Mittu Chandilya, CEO of Air Asia India, is quite active on social media. He uses the platform as an effective tool to promote Air Asia in the country. Speaking on the subject of digital detox he says, “In today’s world of multitasking and split-second decisions, technological advances and the digital world are a blessing and a competitive advantage.

There has never been a better way of

go on digital detox.”

The benefits of a digital sabbatical are many. Research has shown that too much tech can interfere with sleep patterns, making us feel insecure and often hyperactive and restless.

GV Keshav Reddy, grandson of GVK Reddy (Founder Chairman and Managing Director of GVK, the Hyderabad-based infrastructure conglomerate), advocates the need for periodic digital detox in order to stay sane and physically and

Subroto Bagchi The genie is out of the lamp; we cannot crawl back to mother’s womb but irresponsible use of technology, deploying it to serve humanity or inhumanity, is a choice we must make

Kiran Mazumdar Shaw We must remember that technology can never replace the warmth of genuine, caring human relationships. So, individuals who have been spending too much time locked in their virtual worlds may find a periodic ‘digital detox’ necessary reaching your customers, employees and all stakeholders in such a direct manner.

Our smartphones are probably the one thing we can’t leave home without. For me, personally, this is critical and I rely on it tremendously. I do think a digital detox is a very good concept for medical reasons (studies are still being conducted on the effects of mobile phones and the screen’s blue lights effect), relaxing the mind to think more clearly and getting some real downtime. But I think in today’s world, especially in particular sectors, it’s hard to

emotionally connected to the world.

“Yes, one should definitely go on a digital detox because it allows you to embrace the moment and enjoy the world around.

I love going on a digital detox especially when I’m on a holiday on a beach or near a forest. That’s when you actually realise how much beauty you’re missing out on, otherwise,” he tells.

He might be considered the Willy Wonka of the digital world, but the fact remains that in an interview with Walter Isaacson, Steve Jobs revealed that not only did he RITZ may 2015

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TRENDING Now

and his wife limit how much technology their kids used at home, his children did not even have iPads! Issacson, the author of ‘Steve Jobs’ has said: “Every evening Jobs made a point of having dinner at the big long table in their kitchen, discussing books and history and a variety of things. No one ever pulled out an iPad or a computer.”

Jobs wasn’t the only tech giant to impose strict limitations on the kid’s screen time - many Silicon Valley titans ban all digital gadgets on school nights and

Vishal Reddy Thousands of amazing opportunities, people, walk by every hour while our faces are buried into our devices. Smartphone is one amazing channel for communication and information exchange, not the only one and certainly shouldn’t be the primary one. Meaningful relationships are built and real personal development occurs through social interactions, a skill that is being constrained with reduced exposure to real people. Let’s consciously utilise the numerous benefits of technology as a tool and combine with the consciousness of real world surroundings to become the ultimate evolved beings we ought to be!

allocate austere limits for weekends. Chris Anderson, the former editor of Wired who’s now heading up drone maker 3D Robotics, has stringent time limits and parental controls on every device in his home.

Speedster and Formula 1 driver Karun Chandhok feels that a periodic break from the digital world can only be beneficial for us. “I feel that it is important to take some time off from the digital world. Because with emails and text messages people expect replies instantly and you miss out on what’s happening around you. I get my detox when

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I get cycling because I normally switch my phone off and enjoy the peace for a while. I also fly a lot so my time on flights is a detox period as well. I hate that planes have WiFi now because I really enjoy those ten hours to myself,” he says.

Hyderabad-based actor and producer Allu Sirish agrees with Chandok’s view. “Yes, a digital detox is a must. Technically, the brain can’t multi-task; it can only do a rapid-switch between two tasks which only reduces the brain’s processing speed and power.

Constant beeps, alerts and notifications disturb our ability to stay focused and immersed in one task. The only way to be focused and immersed is to “be offline” during crucial tasks,” he declares. “I go on a digital detox in a small way, everyday. I switch off the “data” on my phone while watching a movie, going for meetings or doing a task that needs focus. It’s a huge challenge to be disconnected, but then I push myself to do it.”

Indraneel Ganguly, Global Head, Tech Mahindra contributes valuable insights

on the subject of digital detox. He says, “Today, either we are connected, or asleep - even wellness devices are monitoring our sleep! But it is important for us to recognise that just being on a network, with a device and on a channel, does not make us better thinkers, doers and communicators. We need to try and carve out time to introspect, reflect and find the pristine joys of nature and life through one’s faculties. So if time is the new currency of success, spend it well.”

Nevertheless, early mornings and late evenings are totally dedicated to my family when I’m with them. That’s my time of digital detox.”

Take a tech-free vacation, enforce a Sunday gadget-free rule at home, impose a one-day-a-week ban on technology for yourself, refrain from checking your Facebook account as soon as you wake up - a break from digital communication, whether for a day or a few hours each day, can refresh us and enable us to become

communication era which has really transformed our lives through 24x7 access to a wide variety of information available through views, ideas, opinions, shared on various social and digital platforms from people across the world.

In that sense it has truly created networks that transcend geopolitical boundaries.

However, we must remember that technology can never replace the warmth of genuine, caring human relationships.

So, individuals who have been spending

Allu Sirish Constant beeps, alerts and notifications disturb our ability to stay focused and immersed in one task. The only way to be focused and immersed is to “be offline” during crucial tasks

GV Keshav Reddy I love going on a digital detox especially when I’m on a holiday on a beach or near a forest.

That’s when you actually realise how much beauty you’re missing out on, otherwise

Like many who haven’t heard of the term before, Suchitra Ella, Co-founder and Managing Director of Bharat Biotech International Limited finds the concept and idea of undergoing digital detox intriguing. “Interesting description!” she comments. “I haven’t tried it so far thanks to my hectic work schedule. My role in Bharat Biotech demands that I respond to the communication I receive, instantly. Yes, there are times when it’s overwhelming but the option of staying away from the cyber world is daunting.

more productive in human relationships and at work. Your hands may itch for something to tap on and you might just imagine your phone is ringing in your pocket. But eventually your brain will get back to normalcy and you will reconnect with the things that really matter in life.

Kiran Mazumdar Shaw, Chairman and Managing Director of Biocon Limited, shares intuitive advice. “There is no either or situation, I strongly favour the idea of embracing technology and getting connected digitally. This is a

too much time locked in their virtual worlds may find a periodic ‘digital detox’ necessary to rejuvenate their health and their relationships. I think by and large, mature users strike a fine balance between the time spent online and offline with their friends and family.”

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RITZ may 2015

He Is The Fairest Of Us All It’s official!

Men spend more time on personal grooming than women. New research reveals that the modern man is more image-obsessed than ever, spending over four years of his life perfecting his appearance. Women, on the other hand, spend only three years!

Text: Archana Shenoy (with inputs from Deeksha Marur)

supple. “Sun blocks and moisturiser are essentials for this polluted world we live in. The skin on your body is just as important, regular massages and scrubs with shikakai powder or sea salt are invigorating,” he feels.

Today’s metrosexual men have preferred destinations abroad where they take a much needed break and indulge in some relaxation and grooming rituals. Five-time Indian swimming champion Rehan Poncha is one of those sportsmen who likes to maintain a perfect image, both in and out of the pool. Having recently graduated to a more gentlemanly sport - golf - Poncha’s image has altered dramatically once he hit the greens.

He says, “Men in general, I think, are now quite particular about their appearance. As a swimmer, it was fairy simple with just swim trunks and goggles. You worked out in the gym and it showed on deck! Now, with golf, and corporate events and swim workshops, I certainly make an extra effort to look good while training, teaching or talking! If

Carlos Saavedra

Definitely a hair ritual is my favourite, a good hairspa if is well done is not just treating your hair, it is also providing a sense of luxury

Tackling dark circles, managing facial fuzz, sorting out stray hairs, nail and foot care routine, periodic trips to the barber, using the right hair products, sorting out the perfect scent and learning how to manscape properly… the list is endless. From the season’s latest fashion, to sessions at salons, spas and using high-end cosmetics, today’s metrosexual man shames his woman counterpart on all counts.

Says Swati Gupta, owner of the Bodycraft chain of spas and salons in Bengaluru, “On an average we must be seeing about 30 to 40 men visit our salons on a weekday and a busy weekend sees the number rising to about 80 to 100.” She adds, “Men these days are indulging in all kinds of services. While they definitely all opt for hair services, a lot of men go for services like facials, manicures, pedicures and body spa treatments. “In fact some men come to us for waxing services also.”

Prasad Bidapa, fashion guru from Bengaluru says, “Grooming is the hallmark of a civilised male. From well groomed hair to a perfectly maintained moustache and beard if you have one - a fortnightly visit to your barber is essential.” He adds that regular facials, both clean up and deep moisturising ones keep a man’s skin healthy and

Rehan Poncha

Professional sport can be really demanding on the body. A professional sports massage or a deep tissue one always helps and I take one every week because recovery for an athlete is as important as his training.

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TRENDING Now

Upen Reddy Personal grooming reflects who you are as a person your upbringing, your focus and your determination to succeed. It is very essential to be groomed.

it’s a professional appearance my manager spends that extra time to make sure my suit is the best fit and the look is perfect. So I wouldn’t compare, but I’d definitely agree that men are equally particular about their look now.”

Rehan is not shy to admit that he does have a specific grooming routine. He says his daily routine consists on shower, shave, after-shave and out. But if he has a formal event to attend, or a professional appearance, then his stylist usually gets him to spend a little more time on styling his hair. “It’s also fun experimenting with different looks from clean shaven, to stubble to a full beard, depending on my mood and I do that a lot, often ending with a selfie that goes on to my social media and generates a ridiculous amount of dialogue that’s very amusing,” he quips, flashing his trademark cheeky grin.

He also confides that his weakness is spa treatments and that like many other men he has his favoured haunts. “The Sofitel in Mumbai does a great deep tissue massage. There’s a nice UK chain called Truefitt and Hill which has now opened in India that I’m enjoying.

They offer a great head massage, and also shaving and haircuts and it’s great ambience and service,” he tells.

Bindiya Dharai of Jean Claude Biguine Salons, Bengaluru, says: “It’s an upswing trend where we are seeing men becoming more receptive towards embracing grooming services of international standards. Growing consciousness among men about not only looking stylish but feeling good has got them to experience various kinds of treatments ranging from not only hair cuts, colour and body massages but to pedicures, hair express rituals and waxing.”

Bengaluru-based real estate magnate and businessman Sanjiv Shanmugam is probably one of the city’s most elegantly turned out men. From sporting the season’s latest looks to following current trends and fashion fads, Sanjiv makes no bones of the fact that he likes to spend time and money on himself to look his best.

Prasad Bidapa

Regular manicures and pedicures are a must. Hands and feet must be well groomed at all times. I like Visage in Bengaluru for they are very good. Very professional and effective treatments with well trained staff.

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Sanjiv Shanmugam

I’ve always gone to Mirrors and Within and swear by the Spa at the Leela. I have recently started patronising a great new spa in my neighbourhood called the Palms spa and am hooked on to their fabulous Thai massage! My international favourite has got to be the Chi spas at the Shangri-La. “I don’t think men spend more time on grooming than women, but we’re surely giving them a run for their money,” he tells with a laugh. He states that he prefers male grooming products from brands such as Clinique and that he visits a salon once a week and a spa at least twice a month. He’s even charted out a schedule for himself - a hair trim and beard shaping every Friday!

Just in time to get the look together for a hot weekend on the city’s party circuit.

Actor Upen Reddy from Hyderabad says that his life in front of the camera is all about being groomed, so, over a period of time it becomes a part of who you are.

“There is no specific time allotted to grooming and you get used to being groomed always,” he tells. The hallmark of proper grooming, according to him, means being hygienic. “You can have the best wardrobe in the world, but if you’re not clean, nothing or no amount of mak up is going to cover that up,” he adds. Being in the profession where looking good is his main job, Upen says that he has no account of how much he spends on grooming rituals each month. “I just know that money is extremely important for men to remain well groomed these days.”

Today, most salons and spas in big cities cater to both men and women. Celebrity stylist and salon director of the Rossano Ferretti Salon at The Ritz-Carlton Bengaluru, Carlos Saavedra opines, “I don’t think men spend as much as women on beauty treatments or products, but for sure it is an undercover market.

Everyday men are more aware of themselves and how they look, but they don’t talk about it. I believe the men’s grooming industry is still half hidden, but very profitable.”

Swati Gupta, Bodycraft Spa and Salon

By and large, I have seen men being less price conscious than women.

Our male clients indulge in the best treatments and a lot of them are comfortable spending upto ` 3,000 to 5,000 per sitting.

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Cover Story

Weapon Of Mass Seduction He’s hot! He’s handsome! And oh baby, he is so desirable! Girls go gaga over him, women go weak in their knees when he lights up the screen with his machismo and men go green with envy when he does what they wished they could. He knows the effect he has on women, for sure, but is quite nonchalant about it, which in a way adds to his appeal. From girls-next-door to sultry sirens, he has been linked with some of the most happening heroines of our time.

But mind you, his claim to fame is not that. From choosing his debut vehicle `Leader’ under the aegis of Sekhar Kammula, the master of offbeat cinema, to bulking up 40 pounds for the magnum opus `Baahubali’, Rana Daggubati has pushed the envelope constantly.

What’s more, he’s done it all so effortlessly and convincingly. Not that his detractors weren’t sniggering behind him for his various link-ups or the roles he essayed in Bollywood, they were! But then, a `Leader’ doesn’t give a damn. Regardless of what people say, Rana knows just one thing. And that one thing gob smacks them all – his overall impact on the audiences.

Text: Shankaran Malini

Photographer : V. S. Anandhakrishna Styling : Sujith Sudhakaran Make up : Vijay Dhamne Hair : Vasantha Vasu (Bounce) Designer eye wear: Lawrence & Mayo Location : Amethyst

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Cover Story

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“I guess I picked the right job at the right time” It is one of those sweltering summer days in Chennai when we catch up with Rana in the cool green environs of Amethyst.

The hunk is in Chennai to shoot the Tamil remake of the Malayalam smash hit ‘Bangalore Days.’ Judging by the way women stop dead in their tracks as he passes by in breezy linen, Lawrence and Mayo sunglasses and his super cute EGOTIST cap, Rana has earned every bit of the ‘Most Desirable’ tag.

Straight off, I ask him what makes him so desirable. “Frankly, I have no idea what makes me so desirable as a man! If you had asked me this question five years ago, I wouldn’t even have known that things would turn out this way. I am an actor. Being in the limelight, you need to look right. And it’s a combination of being fit, being blessed with good looks, being comfortable in the clothes you wear and carrying yourself well. You also need to speak right. So It’s a combination of everything. My makeup artist, my stylist, my publicist and the people who put my look together are the ones who need to be given the credit for making me desirable,” he says, continuing, “You probably noticed the lady who greeted me as we walked in and enquired about what brought me here! She was my colleague in a BPO. I started working straight out of college. I was a visual effects coordinator. I guess I picked the right job at the right time. And as to how I got here, the credit for it goes to a combination of different things.”

“My style goes hand-in-hand with my role in a film” How does he balance this ‘Most Desirable’ tag and his unique sense of nonchalant style with the different characters he plays in his films? “My style goes handin-hand with my role in a film. In fact, my look, my physique – everything depends on that. ‘Rudramadevi’ and ‘Baahubali’ – the two period, historical flicks required me to sport different looks. ‘Baahubali’ required me to bulk up massively, grow long hair, a beard, the works…I am totally game for whatever the character demands of me.” Does he emulate anybody on

screen? “Look at me. I am naturally taller and broader than most others. If I tried to emulate their style, it wouldn’t suit me.”

We can’t disagree with that one, especially after we learnt that his shoe size is 13!

And while he may not emulate anybody, he certainly has his favourites as far as style is concerned. “I think Hrithik Roshan is very, very stylish among Indian heroes.

He is a style icon, a style guru so to speak. I can’t even think of a second name. Among women, Sonam Kapoor, I think, is super chic and makes news when it comes to fashion and trends,” he says.

All through college, Rana used to wear a lot of his uncle, Venkatesh’s stuff. He chuckles, “I didn’t even go to college properly. I would dig into my uncle’s wardrobe for clothes and shoes. As an actor, he used to have a lot of stylish stuff – clothes, shoes and accessories.”

Irrespective of whose clothes he wears, it is a fact that wherever he goes and whatever he does, Rana makes news.

Recently, his switch-over to vegetarianism had PETA sending him a gift hamper with predominantly vegan products. Rana comments, “When I was preparing for ‘Rudramadevi’ and ‘Baahubali’, I had to eat a lot of meat to bulk up for my look.

The film and the script demanded it.

Now I am working on the Tamil remake of ‘Bangalore Days’, where I am playing the role which Fahadh Faasil had played in the Malayalam version. I needed to get lean. Despite my workout and rigorous fitness regime, I realised that the weight and muscles I had put on for ‘Baahubali’ were hard to shake off. I always work out five days a week, no matter where I am.

But when I tried a vegetarian diet, the weight started dropping significantly.

So, I decided to stick to it for a while, until this project ends. I am not strictly bound by anything specific. It all goes with what is required of me at a particular point in time.” In terms of project lineup, Rana is currently working on the Tamil remake of ‘Bangalore Days’ and has recently wrapped up the first part of ‘Baahubali’ which is due for release in July. There is no Bollywood project in the offing yet. However, regardless of how many landmark films he stars in, his

role in `Leader’, his debut film, admittedly remains closest to his heart.

“I always walk on trouble!”

I cannot help but ask Rana about Trisha, especially at a time when the grapevine is abuzz that the engagement between her and producer and realtor Varun Manian is over. All he says in response is a polite, “I don’t think it’s right to answer these questions or comment on anything related to this.”

But what about his much publicised affairs with Bipasha Basu and Ragini Dwivedi, amongst others? “I used to find these link-ups really annoying but then when I realised that all this helps certain newspapers in selling space, I decided to leave it at that. It doesn’t matter what the rest of the world thinks about you as long you and the people around you who matter, know what the reality is,” he responds.

Rana is amongst the few actors who does not hesitate to speak his mind and is refreshingly forthright. Often this lands him trouble. “I always walk on trouble. Take the news about me turning vegetarian and PETA sent me a gift hamper acknowledging my switch-over, presuming it’s for life! Now that’s a very scary thing to think of…. Come on, Ramzan is fast approaching!” he laughs out loud.

“When things happen well for you, don’t ever question the logic” Recently, Rana had posted a picture of his from the sets of his current film, in a wedding costume sitting in a mandap, And that evinced crazy amounts of curiosity and reactions even from his fellow actors, not to mention many sections of the media. “That’s a funny one,” he guffaws as he reads out news from a Telugu film portal, “It says that I am gearing up for my secret wedding. That’s how most of my link-up stories are! Most are not true and some are utterly nonsensical, like this one.”

Still, I wonder whether the life of someone so handsome can also be so bland. Surely there is a special girl in his life right now?

“The fact is that, there is no girl in my life right now. I am not commitment phobic.

Definitely not! I want to work for a few more years, get settled and then think RITZ may 2015

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Cover Story

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about marriage. I am working in three industries now – Telugu, Tamil and Hindi.

My priority right now is to do well.”

So what’s the first thing he notices about a woman, I ask. “Height. I find tall women appealing. I enjoy talking to women I can have a fun conversation with. I believe each one of us has our own personality and when someone tries to portray something that they are not, that’s a big put off.” Why do women love him so much, I wonder. He chuckles with delight, “Don’t ever question such things. When things happen well for you, don’t ever question the logic!”

So, if he found the right girl on a date, I ask him if would he consider living in.

“It depends on the person. I don’t know who she is. I don’t have one right now. I believe the idea of a perfect relationship is that you should be comfortable with one another. And you should be yourselves.

When you go out on a date, I believe

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you should have fun wherever you are.”

So, when is he planning to get married?

“Come on! I am only 30. I am young. And I am single right now. I have no answer or thought in this direction. On a lighter note, you see even in films they don’t get me married. That’s how it is,” and he laughs as shares that his first on screen marriage happened recently.

So, what has changed, now that he has turned 30? “I noticed my first grey hair.

And I was very upset about it. I think that’s the paradigm shift in my life now.

It’s my first grey hair after all. The idea of colouring my hair was something I found appealing initially. Not anymore,” he says.

The passing away of Rana’s grandfather, the stalwart D Ramanaidu, has left a great void in his life. “I was very attached to him.

I don’t even know what to do now. I know he is not coming back. It’s something that cannot be undone. Whenever I see his office, his room or his car empty, I feel very

emotional for those are spaces that can never be filled.”

Working in two period films – ‘Rudramadevi’ and ‘Baahubali’ – Rana feels is one of the greatest things that could have ever happened to his career.

“Reconstructing a part of history is a big thing indeed. To visualise something that has happened so long ago in the past that you have no scope of ever seeing in real life or experiencing first-hand is a feat in itself. As a kid, Lord Krishna only reminded me of the late NT Rama Rao and Veera Pandiya Kattabomman, of the late Sivaji Ganesan. If the real people came in front of me, I would probably be disappointed because the on screen images are so firmly imprinted on my mind. My roles in both my films are the hugest blessing I can ever get as an actor.

And if it’s accepted by the audiences, nothing like it.” Amen to that!

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personality

Jyothika is back!

Usually, leading ladies of South Indian cinema bid adieu to the arc lights when matrimony and subsequently motherhood beckon. Many have come back to face the camera after a hiatus but only a rare few in the history of South Indian cinema have had a successful second innings in films. That too, after switching to cameos and character roles. But then, Jyothika is not your regular star. Nor has she ever been. Having ruled the roost for half a decade after making her Tamil debut with Vaali in 1999, Jyothika is all set to comeback with a power-packed and meaningful lead role in 36 Vayadhinile. And judging by the hype that the film is generating, she is doing so in her own inimitable style and with tons of grace!

Close on the heels of this stunning and exclsuive photo shoot for us, styled by film industry trendsetter and veteran Anu Parthasarathy, Shankaran Malini caught up with one of modern South Indian cinema’s best loved heroines at the beautiful house she lives in, with her superstar husband Suriya and their adorable kids – Diya and Dev.

What are your thoughts and feelings about your comeback film?

It feels great that people have appreciated me and given me a warm welcome. In fact, it’s a shocking welcome!

Suriya has been telling me how fans and audiences have been looking forward to watch me again on the silver screen. And that’s why I am very excited. I am back to acting after motherhood. And it is proving to be more fun, while also demanding more responsibility, and more maturity.

Naturally, I am bound to deliver a good performance.

As a mother of two, what would you you like to share with married women?

Women should not sit at home after marriage. There is a period in life after marriage, when your family is paramount, you need to have kids and give them time, and be around them constantly till they are old enough to go to school. But you have to get back to work at some point.

That’s what gives you name and your life, more meaning. I see many women who

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have been given a good education by their parents, relegate their qualification to just their certificates. I would like to take this opportunity to urge those women to get back to work, and do something, whether small or big. That’s why this film has been remade from Malayalam to Tamil - we want to show audiences that women do have their own place in society.

How did you choose the script?

It all happened over a weekend. Suriya was in Kerala for the promotions of Anjaan. Somebody had given him a CD of this film. AT that point, since nothing was planned, the CD was even lying idle on our table for four days! But once we watched it, we were sure we wanted to remake this film under our own banner.

I watched the film only once. After that I didn’t. I didn’t want any aspect of Manju’s performance to influence my performance. I am planning to meet her sometime after the success of my film. I am aware that Manju visits Chennai very

often though.

Often, a remake is compared with the original. So also is the case of adaptations, like from a novel to a film. Manju’s performance won overwhelming acclaim. Will you be able to live up to the expectations of Malayalam audiences?

Yes, I have been getting a lot of feedback and I know that Malayalam audiences are excited to see another person playing the character of the protagonist in the film. There is a lot of buzz in Malayalam cinema. They want to compare and watch.

Perhaps, films like ‘36 Vayadhinile’ can set a new trend in Tamil movie with its woman centric role.

It depends largely on our audience to come out of their houses and see a film like this. Women should definitely see this film because for one thing, I am very confident that they can connect with it.

The film is like an event out of their lives and in that sense, it is very real. And it’s every woman’s film.

Photography : Karthik Srinivasan Makeup : Banu Hair : Rachel’s Stylesmith Styling : Anu Parthasarathy Location : Dreeamcast Studio Apparel and Jewellery: Jyothika’s own

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How will a 36-year old heroine compare to the leading ladies in their twenties?

A 36-year-old woman is much more experienced than a 26-year-old. The life women at that age have seen, the maturity they have and the sensibility that comes along with it - none of this reflects in bubbly roles. At the age of 36, most married women are mothers too. At 36 you know how to give. This is not the case at the age of 26. It’s a more selfish age where you want more and more and you haven’t seen the world around you much.

At 36, I am a much better person than I was at 25 or 26. And, this is something I can be proud of.

Will ‘36 Vayadhinile’ be the beginning of your second innings?

Every script which comes to me, should hopefully be better than the last script that I have done and it should impress me more than the previous one. I was keen on this script for a comeback because of its social message. Even from a standpoint of just films, I think for the last eight years women have not been getting this kind of place on celluloid. I liked the script so much that I was open to working in any production. Being an actor himself, my husband was helpful in this venture, and our 2D Entertainment produced the film and gave me the platform. Suriya has been the main fulcrum in making this film happen. He has always wanted me to come back to the silver screen. Whether it was about taking a Sunday off or going back home after 6 o’ clock, working with 2D has given me a lot of flexibility. Suriya himself has been doing a lot of publicity for the film.”

You have worked with most of the respected names in the film industry, from Rajinikanth and Kamal Haasan to Ajith and Vijay. What do you think of them?

Rajini sir did what perhaps no other hero would have done, by naming the film after the female character - Chandramukhi.

Kamal sir of course has been taking cinema leap years ahead through his acting skills. Ajith and Vijay are closer to my age and I have worked with them ever since I started my career. I have fond

memories of my films with all of them.”

You have earned so much respect and love for yourself from people - whether as an actress or as a star wife on a hiatus - that your comeback has generated enormous hype. This is something very few stars have been able to achieve. Comment.

Thank you! I think it’s all about the right thing happening at the right time; taking the right decisions at the right age. For me, it was falling in love with the right person for me, Suriya, and getting married to him, having two children after that and landing the right script for my comeback. Even before I went on a hiatus, I ended with a good film, Mozhi.

How has life with Suriya been? How do you keep the spark alive as a couple?

Suriya has been my everything. My first film started with him. Even back then, he would always talk to me about the things he loved and wanted to do. We started off as friends, that friendship changed into love and love culminated in marriage. I love the respect he gives women. I can proudly say that he is one of the very few actors who even when doing physically intimate scenes with co-stars, makes it a point to do it with consideration and respect. I adore that quality in him - it is really special. I think our marriage works so well because there is a lot of respect and understanding that we share. We talk a lot and that helps us stay connected to each other’s needs. It is important for a husband and wife to share at multiple levels. We also love spending time together. We enjoy vacations where we can travel with the kids, be cut off from

everything for a few days, spend quality time together and come back.”

Suriya, the husband or Suriya, the father - who is better?

Ah! That’s a good question. No one has asked me this, nor have I ever thought about it. Suriya is a very, very good husband, most certainly. He has always stood by me, through everything. From the day we got to know each other, till today, he has given me a lot of respect. He enjoys the time he gets to spend with our children, so he is a great father as well.

Between the two of us, he patches up fast and even makes up for the most part of it.

I am pretty much the quiet kind. The only thing that I would perhaps want to change in him is his habit of talking long hours on the phone.

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design elements

Bengaluru

A Journey Back In Time It is a restopub with a travel theme that takes a wanderer back in time, bringing back nostalgic memories of journeys and expeditions. The Lost Caravan or TLC as it is popularly referred to on Bengaluru’s pub scene, is the city’s newest hotspot that is being talked about more for its décor than the food and beverages on offer. Simply because it tells the story of a traveller through different perspectives.

Text: Archana Shenoy

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It is a space that grabs you by the eyeballs as you walk in through swishing glass doors. The attention to detail extends everywhere. AC ducts are covered with maps of all kinds, from all over the globe.

The spaces above the bar counters are adorned with black and white pictures and postcards, every single one of which is unique. The furniture is an unusual mix of dinner sofas, recliners and retro lounge chairs. Even the bar counter has a story, being environment-friendly and made from recycled doors.

The contrasts of colours, textures and décor is stunning. Designer Nagesh Maney of OpusCDM had a vision in mind when owner of TLC Avinash Byanna

approached him with the design contract.

He wanted the design to be structured around people’s intuitive needs and therefore be usable and pleasing - both in experience and aesthetics. Hence the theme for a restopub that was uncommon yet relatable, and with-the-trend, yet timeless.

The concept of travel and journeys came about after much thought, and it fit the bill very well, explains owner Avinash Byanna.

“Each of us has taken our own personal journeys of exploration and discovery at one point or another, so it’s something we identify with. At the same time, it’s a great way to keep the place unique, with décor that doesn’t just fade into the background

but engages people’s interest and curiosity - like the suitcases with memoirs, travelogues and actual souvenirs from around the world! The retro aesthetics blended with pop-art elements ensures the ambience is simultaneously cool and timeless. After all of this evolved, “The Lost Caravan” as a name seemed a natural fit and a good metaphor for what the place represents,” he tells.

The entry wall is lined with antique clocks, most of them seem to have stopped at some point of time, adding to the timeless feel and décor of the space. Other walls have suitcases mounted on them - each carrying a little note taped inside it charting the journeys of Charlie, John, RITZ may 2015

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design elements Veronica and the like - filled with articles, knick-knacks, football shoes, stockings, even rope and old pots of cosmetics among other things that one would throw into their suitcase before undertaking a journey. It’s left to the imagination of the observer to decide the course of the journey of each suitcase owner and recreate his or her trip in the mind. All the clocks and the curios in suitcases are actual possessions that have seen their own long journeys - not just props that have been made to look the part.

Bright pops of Andy Warhol-esque art adorn the main walls of the pub giving you a tasteful experience of having travelled back to the ‘50s. The design of the stunning triangular bar at the heart of TLC gives the restaurant space a community feel. The intended fluid connections between each section lets people at the

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bar interact effortlessly with those sitting at tables, making the journey all the more memorable. The bar is also environmentfriendly as it is entirely made of recycled doors.

The clocks, the antique props in elegantly crafted frames, the wall of gilded mirrors, all speak of the amount of thought and attention to detail that the design team have provided.

“Unique was the USP. The only way to achieve this was through a lot of attention to detail. The art on the walls, the suitcases, the clocks, the restroom doors, even the menu - every element was an opportunity to express a little more of TLC’s personality. In fact, there are even little Easter Eggs hidden in the details for the truly inquisitive eye to find”, explains Byanna as he walks us through the restobar for a final look around.

The Lost Caravan 55, Prestige RR Building, Church Street, Bengaluru Phone: +91 80 40924308

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design elements

hyderabad

A Tad Whimsical Located in the midst of the busy streets of Road No. 12, Eclaire, run

by Carolyn Tadamala, is a quirky and quaint little cafĂŠ that takes you from reality to a fable-like setting in the blink of an eye.

Text: Deeksha Marur

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Photo credits: Santosh Kumar A hole in the wall joint that has been functional for about less than a year, Eclaire’s interiors will catch your eye only if you have a penchant for detail. So if you pass by Road No. 12 and miss spotting it, we won’t blame you.

Talk to Carolyn, the owner of the café, and she says, “I had the interiors sorted before finding the right place. I had a vivid picture of how I wanted the bakery to look and I had all the details down to the T.” The exteriors are painted in a shade of mint green, complimented with white trimming.

A kettle shaped board made from wrought iron hangs with the café’s name to one side and the other has a cart painted in

white with flower pots hanging from its framework.

Enter the café and it feels like you’re entering a patisserie on the streets of Paris. At first glance, you notice the coffee machine, the counter filled with sinful desserts on display that are a visual delight, as well as tea cup and saucer lights that hang above the counter. Looking at these lights, you feel like you are part of the sets of Alice in Wonderland at the Mad Hatters’ tea party. But on speaking with Carolyn, she says, “A lot of people have told me that but frankly, the café isn’t based on an Alice in Wonderland theme, but it’s just a representation of the heart.

It tells my story. It’s a comfortable place where I think people can come and get inspired,” she says.

On the counter, in the shape of a mason jar, hangs their cute and unique menu card along with a couple of other stands – one for cupcakes, one for cookies and one for brownies. Behind the counter, is a shelf decorated with jars of sugar, chocolate chips, an old camera, and a pretty wooden tray amongst the set of floral tea cup sets.

Carolyn adds, “Different people come and see different things. For some it’s the cup and saucer lights that catch the eye and have said it has the Tea Party look. We’ve had different reactions to the RITZ may 2015

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design elements décor. The wall where we have the chipped bricks and stencilled Eclaire on it, has received a lot of feedback. Some came up to us and said to get it painted because it looked incomplete.” Despite different reactions and feedback about the interiors, Carolyn was very sure of how she wanted the café to look and listened to no one but herself. In fact she thinks that people see what they like because it reflects them or their personalities and that’s the same way with the café for her. I’ve been baking since I was a kid, and it’s something close to my heart. Frankly I might not be the best baker in town, but I know what I like and how to make what I like, so that’s how Eclaire happened.”

Complimenting the décor is the beige coloured sofa with contrasting floral printed cushions. And on every table sits a pretty coffee mug planter that adds to the many quirks of the café. Ask her whether she sourced the decorations and she says, “Some are from Hyderabad, some from Mumbai, some from the streets during my many travels around the world. I had the interiors sorted before I got the place so I had to work backwards and get things to compliment the interiors and since I knew how I wanted it to be, I decorated the place exactly that way.”

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Eclair Address: 8-2-682/B/6, Road 12, Banjara Hills, Hyderabad Phone: +919177821777

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Chennai

Peddling A New Experience There’s tables created from wheel rims, bar stools fabricated from cycle frames, racy bikes suspended from the ceilings and cycle saddles substituting art work on bare brick walls. This is not your typical cycle store, it Chennai’s Ciclo Café, the only hangout in the city that is frequented by biking enthusiasts and aspiring bikers.

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Text: Diya Subramanian

Photo credits: Lakshmi Jagan It’s an interesting twist to your regular Italian café, Ciclo provides an atmosphere unlike any other. Ashish Thadani, the owner says, “ The inspiration for this café came from Arun Alagapan, the President of TI cycles, when he visited L’Amandier, our other restaurant and asked if we would like to collaborate and create not just a themed café but a lifestyle café for all cycling lovers, and we immediately agreed.”

A cycling enthusiast himself, Thadani and his wife Nidhi have put in much effort into making the place unique in all aspects, ranging from its one-of-a-kind design to the well thought out use of a cycle and

its various parts. The bicycle-inspired themed café is furnished with quirky cycle seats as bar stools and out of the box wall hangings, an example of the detailed efforts put into the thematic setting.

Nidhi Thadani says, “ We sat with our interior designer and worked on every element in the café to fit the theme. We maintained the colour scheme as well as the exposed brick walls from our other restaurant but decided to work around the wall art.” Nidhi then goes on to tell us how they dismantled a cycle to see which parts of it could be used and every part of the café incorporating the cycle parts was custom made to suit the theme.

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A perfect blend of European bistro-like settings with Chettinad style tiling makes it one of the most exclusive cafés in Chennai. From details like the barstools that are cycle seats, to the clock made out of cycle spokes, or even just a whole cycle hanging next to your table while you enjoy your main course, everything was designed and well thought out to make it stick to the theme of being the only cycle café in Chennai.

Another idea behind the café was to make it a one-stop-shop for all cycling enthusiasts. Therefore connected to the café is a store where you can buy cycles and accessories. Ciclo offers international cycle brands such as Bianchi, Cannondale, Mongoose and Schwinn (marketed by TI Cycles in India) for sale. Or if you already have a bike, and are looking for accessories and other services, this café should be your latest hangout. And the Thadanis soon plan to open a a cycle spa, a place for people to come in and give their cycles a wash and an oiling while relaxing at the café.

Ciclo also organises weekend cycling trips to encourage enthusiasts to take up this physically invigorating and environmentfriendly activity. A perfect afternoon for a serious biker wanting to repair a cycle or a novice wanting to purchase a bike whilst also enjoying some time out - Ciclo seems like the perfect destination.

Ciclo Cafe 33, Gandhi Mandapam Road, Chitra Nagar, Kotturpuram, Chennai Phone: +91 44 4208666

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wanderlust Photo credits: Ali Shaaz Jung 70

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“We were in the short-grass plains of Ndutu when the clouds turned grey. At the crack of thunder she began to move. The sudden change of weather had sparked more than just raindrops in the air.

A palpable tension soaked up the atmosphere and then, one lesser noticeable black patch seemed to loom over a lone wildebeest.

Little did we know he was destined to die under it!

Text: A first person account by Saad Bin Jung & Ali Shaaz Jung RITZ may 2015

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They called her Kifo, meaning ‘death’ in Swahili for, like her ilk, she was a lioness that took life with ease. But Kifo had a secret.

In the tall grass, known as the ‘Marshlands of Death’, she had a litter of three and to keep them alive she needed to hunt regularly. The cubs were four months old and their diet was now meat. Though she was part of the Marsh Pride, she had to kill on a daily basis to ensure that there was enough food left to filter down to her cubs.

Guaranteed action, we decided to spend the next few days with her pride. Patience is the virtue of the hunter, and on the third day as we waited for the wildebeest to descend into the marshlands for water, Kifo too hid in the grass and waited.

That’s when we saw the lonely wandering calf. He was very young, not more than five weeks and maybe in the scramble of the migration or in a bid to escape predators, the lone wildebeest had lost his way and was now walking alone, straight into the waiting jaws of death. We saw Kifo lift her head, the ears flicker and a set of ever-watchful eyes peered straight at the calf from the swaying grass. Then, with a blink of an eye, the blades of grass parted silently and Kifo was on the move, a blur against the rain soaked ground. The calf stood still completely oblivious to what lurked behind him, intent on finding its mother, bleating every few minutes.

The lioness was out in the open and moving like the wind.

Effortless and without a sound she was within striking distance.

One false sound, a misplaced step would cost her and her cubs dear, they would go hungry for another day if her prey spooked. That’s when she made the cardinal error and stepped on a fallen log weakened by the rain, the crack of dead bark sent the calf into a frenzied gallop. Within a second he was at full gallop, running straight for our vehicle. He came within touching distance of us and then, barely an inch from the safari vehicle, stood trembling looking at us with those large innocent eyes, begging us to save him from the jaws of certain death. The lioness wasn’t willing to come that close to humanity to make the kill and retreated back into the eerie grass to become yet again, another ghost of the marsh.

That’s when we saw another safari vehicle driving towards us.

The calf thinking it was the mother, rushed to meet the dust.

The lioness rose from the grass and descended on it again. The calf turned back to get to us but it was too late. She picked him

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wanderlust up effortlessly and carried him into the grass.

A small stream of water trickled from the scene of the hunt to our jeep. It’s transparency lost to a varying hue of red. That day in the Serengeti, blood flowed as freely as water. That’s when our guests realised that in the deepest of Africa, when they safari with us in the endless lands of the great migration, they would more often than not, have a lot more than just the rain to soak in.

Africa never ceases to amaze us!

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Africa, that majestic land of endless horizons, where each setting sun merits its own painting, simply has no parallel.

A plethora of tribes, traders, explorers, colonists, bounty hunters, white hunters and incredible wildlife have blessed this land with a unique character of its own. It is the land of adventure; raw, savage yet sensitive and extremely gentle. In this land seeped in tribal traditions and warfare the earth is torn apart by cataclysmic forces creating a geographical magnificence unparalleled by any other in the world.

Great mountains with snow on the equator and greater mountain ranges still, the majestic Great Rift Valley with its immense salt and fresh water lakes, great deserts in both the hemispheres and incredible rivers laden with diamonds and gold feed the human eye with sights beyond belief.

Here lies the source of the Nile, which has fascinated the world since centuries, a fascination which led to the very destruction of the continent. Explorations precede colonization and though Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Namibia, South Africa, Zambia, Botswana and Zimbabwe (to name a few) are independent today, they have retained the grandeur and romance of their colonial past. Tanzania and Botswana especially have mastered the art of taking you back in time and keeping you there, all with present day comforts. If you have the heart for adventure and if you want to feel, engage and thrill in the sheer ecstasy of being amidst the very last wilderness havens on earth then come on safari with us.

‘Africa Under Canvas’ is an Expedition & Safari company with its own mobile camps where we revolutionize the stereotypical views on travel within the Dark Continent. We retrace the rawness and the inner beauty of an era forgotten with personalized expeditions and safaris into the heart of the continent, offering both an inner glimpse into the savage yet gentle wilderness and the culture and traditions of the beautiful people that coexist with it.

We take you to this extraordinary world of a pristine wilderness ruled by the still superstitious tribals, yet pamper and spoil you like no other.

Our camps are what both the guests and the wilderness need. They are temporary yet extremely comfortable, spacious tents that move after you have left, without leaving a footprint behind – exactly like my family did a hundred years ago, a reminiscence of the golden days of the royals of Bhopal and the Paigah of Hyderabad.

Africa needs to be touched, caressed and enjoyed and a safari with us is one of the best ways to experience the contrasts of this extremely diverse and stunning continent.

“They are able because they think they are able” - Virgil They’re full-time students, a diverse lot scattered across the South, who’ve decided to think out of the box and come up with budding businesses. They all share the same optimism, ambition and entrepreneurial drive that has fuelled the success of the previous generations.

We meet youngsters who dare to dream big and are on the path to realise their aspirations.

Over a Cuppa

Young Turks At Work

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Bengaluru

An Ode To Nature She’s a lateral thinker, someone who’s broken free of the shackles of established educational norms and given herself free reign to think and learn and live at the same time. Nineteen year old Janani Eshwar connects people to plants. She creates learning and teaching models for both children and adults at her venture Green Connect, a part of ArtyPlantz, a social organisation in Bengaluru.

Text: Archana Shenoy It may sound simple, a tad over-hyped and not so important in the large digital world that one is drowning in these days. But Janani Eshwar believes that she is doing much more than teaching people to appreciate and conserve nature. “I connect people to plants. I find ways to make them fall in love with plants and to feel like we inhabit this ecosystem together,” explains the sprightly nineteen-year-old in her sweet, innocent tone.

She’s passionate about what she does. For someone who gave up the formal education system at age 12 to be home schooled, Janani has a long list of subjects learned and still being learned as part of her study repertoire. She’s presently doing a course under a mentor from the Eight Shield Community in California - it is a proprietary road-map applied to educational strategies, personal development, community building, organisational processes and more.

The Green Connect Programme, a module spearheaded by Janani herself for ArtyPlantz in Bengaluru, has gained much popularity among conscious groups of elders, youngsters and school goers, all through her efforts to connect and relate to the right target audience. “Outdoors, in nature is where we are meant to be. I’ve often been told by the participants of my programmes that this is just what

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they were missing. We restrict ourselves so much these days, what with our four walls boxing us in or the electronics we are wired to. Our senses miss out on all the exercise and exploration they need to be fully developed and it hurts us in many ways,” she explains.

Many studies have found links and proof to say that lack of exposure to nature and all the stimulus it provides are major reasons for psychological syndromes like ADD or hyperactivity and even depression. Most importantly, there are several things that are going wrong with our environment. Many of them because of our actions. “It isn’t hard to get information on how to live right, but very often we aren’t pushed to doing it.

By connecting with plants, falling in love with them and realising truly that we are a part of each other, people can’t think of doing anything that isn’t right by them. By connecting people with plants, we heal both the land, and our minds,” explains the passionate naturalist.

Through her work Janani concentrates on orienting mainly children and their caretakers to nature. She believes that if she can allow opportunities for children between the ages of 8 and 14 to connect to plants and nature, we will have a generation of self confident, empathetic, kind, healthy citizens who will do right for themselves and their community. She wants to reach out to every child in the country, but for now concentrates on her immediate society and city.

Constantly researching the subject and broadening her educational boundaries, Janani tells us how it is imperative for her to make a sustainable working model, even for a chosen profession like hers.

“If I don’t make a sustainable model, my research is not complete,” she says.

“I am going to be working with people from various classes of society, from various communities and from various fields of expertise. I am in conversation with psychologists, anthropologists, ethno-botanists and many others in the education field. The model I create should be one that can work for them all.”

Using her Green Connect Programme, the young lady works in two ways.

Firstly, through a deep awareness of the senses and how to fully open them out.

“This allows us to get down to the Earth in a way that animals and plants do. It allows us to enjoy fully, the opportunities for experience that the human body provides,” she explains. On a second level, the programme works through a realisation and reinforcement that we are a part of nature. She explains how as humans, we feel removed from nature.

We often segregate things into natural and man-made. “We have to remember that we do really only get this one Earth, that we have a place on it, and that there are skills and practices that are needed to allow this to happen. This portion involves some thinking and introspection. It also involves a lot of skills and ways to live with the land.”

work until it sat right with me. I do have the frequent lazy day. I have the too much energy to sit with the computer. But, if I don’t work for a while, I don’t feel right. It doesn’t even feel correct to call it work.

It is what I do. It is why I learn,” she says emphatically.

The aim of Janani’s research is to ensure that working with plants and nature can be financially sustainable. “This research and work model that I have created has to be sustainable. If I want to make this movement big, I need to be able to prove that others can choose this crazy field. That they can make themselves sustainable. We are solving a large deficit. We are needed. It is up to us to be innovative enough to find a way to make this solution work,” she says, signing off with a flourish.

Photo credits: Faheem Hussain Vastly different from the average teenager (though Janani jokes that she doesn’t really know what the average is!) she went through intensive thinking before embarking on this mission. “I wrote out many pages, talked to many people (both supportive and otherwise), in fact, I used my workshops and sessions as a test to start with. I tried every possible way to see if this is what I wanted to do. I cleaned out the sentences I used to talk about my RITZ may 2015

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hyderabad

Tech-Savvy Whizkids Rohit Asil and Vijay Varada are not your average 20-something year olds. They are in fact anything but ordinary. Why? Well, frankly, would you have dreamt of being a CEO and CTO of a company that deals with manufacturing, sales and service of Desktop 3D Printers, Rapid Prototyping & Design consultancy as well as Product Design? In conversation with these two young entrepreneurs about how they balance their work lives with their student lives.

Text: Deeksha Marur

Rohit Asil

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At age 23, Vijay Varada, along with his friend Rohit Asil, co-founded Fracktal Works while he was in his third year of Mechnatronics Engineering at Manipal Institute of Technology. Now a fresh graduate, Vijay takes care of R&D, product design, graphic design and team building, while Rohit overlooks everything else like operations, legalities, cash flow, and logistics. Rohit who is still in his final year, says, “I ran a Google search of myself recently and found that I am the Director and CTO of Fracktal Works who is studying at MIT, Manipal and lives in Bengaluru. This is what I am considered. Though, however, I really think of myself as a boy who always happened to be at the right place in the right time,” explains this hardworking, cheerful and impulsive CTO. Ask them about how the company came about and Vijay says, “I never really had any inclination towards starting my own company. But it’s safe to say that the handful of people I met at Robomanipal (the robotics team of the college) were certainly the best in college”. In fact Rohit and he built a mind controlled robot that they entered into the colleges’ Business Plan competition, after being forced to join. They had won many technical competitions earlier, but thought making a business model out of it was absurd. “Honestly, we would never have thought we were the types who would start a company, at least I didn’t think so,” adds Vijay. But on winning the competition both boys were left speechless and later thought that such an opportunity doesn’t come every day and decided to go forward with it.

Asil mentions though, “I have always been curious and open to new ideas that come in my way. If not for a very successful one, I can make a business plan out of anything!” Then they were given an office space, `5 lakh seed money and were expected to make a Charles Xavier (X-Men) type mind controlled wheelchair for the physically disabled.

They add, “We were searching for ways to make prototypes for our initial designs, and that’s how we found 3D printing. At that time it was still in its nascent stage in the country and was really expensive to get our hands on. So, we did whatever any frustrated engineer would do - build our own!”

Once they were done, they were getting finishes and qualities that could compete with many industrial printers of that time, and that’s when they knew they had a winning product on hand. So, they dropped the wheelchair altogether and for the next year they perfected their design and came out with the first 3D printer. That’s how Fracktal Works was born!

What kind of services do they provide under the company,? They design and manufacture 3D printers and provide end-to-end product design services.

“Everything from computer aided design, to rendering, to embedded systems to back-end and front-end programming, and lastly even manufacturing can be done by us,” they inform.

Coming into a market that’s so fresh in terms of manufacturing 3D printers, one might be judgmental about their surviving in this industry especially because they are students. “There are very few in the industry who take both product design and aesthetics as seriously as we do. By starting on small projects and executing them well, we landed ourselves clients like Toshiba, Cisco and many more,” says the young CEO. Their mechatronics background enables just a handful of people to take on multiple disciplines to make products where everything from mechanicals to electronics to the UI/ UX and aesthetics is one comprehensive whole, and accomplishing all this at a record pace and costing which makes their customers happy.

So it wasn’t difficult to sell their product in such a market then? “For our 3D printers, we followed a pretty simple mantra - Be the best when it comes to aesthetics, quality of output, reliability and ease of use! After that, marketing and selling our machines wasn’t that hard,” say both the entrepreneurs.

Moving on to the student side... How do you manage to find the time to study when you are working?

According to Rohit, there have always been scenarios where they had to choose between work and study, but luckily the choices have been easy and have always been work. He says, “The professors and my friends are very supportive, especially when it comes to coping with the classes I missed. It’s been one hell of a ride and I still remember the all-nighters I pulled off just before the exam and how exam week used to be the vacation-from-workweek!” The best part he says, “is where

sacrificed, at least at the beginning if you want to achieve as much in a short period of time as possible”, he says.

Vijay adds to that, “When you are a startup, even growing linearly can kill you and only exponential growth will give you any chance of success.” Speaking of growth and success, what’s the goal for Fracktal Works? “We are currently doing mostly B2B sales and low barrier products like 3D printing. Although there is still good money in B2B, the real challenge will be making consumer products for the B2C market. We are collaborating with many companies, as we speak, on various products ranging from home automation, to IOT to audio systems and aim to come out with well-designed products for the B2C market by next year and make Fracktal a household name.”

Leave them with the question about where they see themselves in five years and they say that there’s scope to get into

Vijay Varada

Photo credits: Faheem Hussain you get to apply the lessons learnt in your class in your start-up operations.”

What about personal and social life then?

Does that take a back seat? The only way to manage studies and working is by (almost) giving up on social and personal life, states Vijay. “It’s been quite some time since I’ve gone home and seen my parents or hung out with friends, but it’s something that would need to be

electric vehicles and even health care.

Though they aren’t necessarily sure what they might be doing in the future as they just started out. They began with product design as a service working on a diverse range of products from tablets to home automation. So, “No matter what we get into in the future, we are going to work as hard as humanly possible to be the best at it!” say the hardworking entrepreneurs.

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kochi

Young And Restless Addressing the first batch of NIT scholars, President Pranab Mukherjee urged the youth to march towards their goals with confidence. More so, in a young country like ours, it won’t be a surprise if more young minds come forth with some brilliant ideas.

Two such young talents who dared to dream big are Nidhiya Raj and Mehar Moosa, both students of Cochin University of Science and Technology (CUSAT). With the help of an incubator company that supports startups like these, they’ve succeeded and are excelling in managing their own companies.

Text: Sumitra Nair

Fun beginnings Initially the group of friends started designing websites for companies, making videos, teasers, doing online promotions etc. for pocket money. It eventually developed into Nidhiya Raj a full-fledged company Webaccede. “We started getting international clients right from the start because of my profile Meet Nidhiya Raj, a 20-year old in her on Linkedin, ” says the excited youngster. It fourth year of B Tech IT, the CEO of then started getting ‘serious’ as they had Webaccede. Webaccede provides various targets to meet within deadlines.

“We got web-related solutions to companies more clients via word of mouth, ” Raj says. including designing websites, allowing The team currently consists of Shabeer them to start e-retail, social media who takes care of the creative process, marketing and branding. They can also Mohammed Raees who looks after the create Apps for your services/products. “I backend and operations, Dinu Jacob and was inspired when I attended a workshop Alex Tom who are the developers. “We are

by Startup Village at Kinfra Infopark for all classmates,” she says. The team that a free T-shirt. This was in my 3rd year. I worked out of a space provided by Startup then attended a hackathon organised by Village, hopes to start an office of their them. Just attending these events got own soon. Raj who finished schooling from me thinking that maybe I too could do Holy Ghost Convent, Aluva, says she is something on my own,” says Nidhiya who lucky that her parents are supportive of is interested in hardware as much as she is her aim to run a business. “Sure, they are in software.

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worried, like all parents are, but they are supportive too. They do not think that I can’t do this just because I am a girl, which makes me happy,” she adds.

Being real Coming from a middle class upbringing, she had to convince her father initially that this was a great idea and was feasible. “He owns a small business. So he understands the glory and pitfalls of doing something on your own. The only thing he told me was to never give up and follow what I believed in with conviction,” she says. Raj who has an older sister and a younger brother, considers Sudha Murthy and Steve Jobs to be her role models. She said she related to Murthy because, just like her, Raj was the only girl in her class.

Raj is almost done designing a safety gadget for women which she has temporarily named the Nirbhaya Bangle.

The bangle that also acts as a pepper spray, not only sends out alert messages to your family and friends, but to those around you too, so that help is available immediately. She hopes to make this easily available to all women, very soon.

Meet another young entrepreneur, Mehar Moosa, also a student at CUSAT. Founder of Anamega, he is in his last year of software engineering. Mehar started developing apps in his second year and ended up founding Anamega.

His first eureka moment was “developing a secure browser.” The app has been lapped up by Blackberry, has had more than 50,000 downloads so far and an average rating of 4.5/5. “The browser operates on incognito mode and stores none of your personal data,” quips the 23-year old proudly. “It is also faster than the in-built browsers in most phones,” he adds.

Mehar, along with his friends Aamir Rahman, Eby Jose, Meril K Abraham, Saneem, Fayas Backer and Mohammed Wafiq, also developed a secure notes app that comes with the feature of a dummy pin code. “Usually when your friends or family want to take a look at what is in your phone, they ask for the access code. You can tell them a dummy code, which when entered will prompt a message, ‘please reset code’, which puts your friends off. The group of youngsters are also in the process of developing another app, that lets you tag pictures before storing them, so that you can find them with ease later, if needed.

Mehar Moosa

Dream Catcher Founding and running a firm of his own, feels like a dream come true for Mehar, who has been mentored by Zacharias Manuel, former tech head of Startup Village.

“It all began when he attended an elite programme by Blackberry, that inspired him to create an App that was “built for Blackberry.” Mehar, who is originally from Calicut, has two younger brothers. His father is a government servant and mother, a homemaker. He was interested in computer science right from when he was in the fourth grade at GMUP school. When he was in Class 10 he helped his teachers by installing Linux systems on the school computers, when computer education became compulsory in schools. By 12th grade, he was fluent in programming languages like C and C++.

The enthusiastic achiever plans to move his company to the IT hub of the country, Bengaluru.

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Chennai

Spinning A New Tune He’s 22 and student at Loyola College Chennai, over and above which he pursues his passion, DJing. It’s not a career path considered mainstream or serious in India, yet passionate music lover Vishwesh Radhakrishnan is working to prove his critics wrong as he takes his company Musync from a start-up to being a well-known music property in the city.

Text: Diya Subramanian

Currently pursuing his Bachelors in Commerce from Loyola College in Chennai, Vishwesh Radhakrishnan is not your average youngster. The lad eats, breathes and sleeps music and is very sure that he wants to pursue his passion and build it into his career. Hence his move to start Musync, an event and artist management company focussing on exposing people to different kinds of music that are not the commercial tracks normally heard.

Says the youngster, “We find artists that are great at what they do, but not necessarily famous and bring them down to India. We work towards giving people an experience they will not forget. Our aim is to promote electronic music in India with local/national and international talent coming and performing here, thereby exposing people to the vast amount of music and different styles that are there to be discovered.”

Being extremely passionate about music, and often moonlighting as a DJ, Vishwesh says he’s had the opportunity to meet and interact with likeminded people and understand the industry better.

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With the proper contact and a sound understanding of how the industry works, he decided to take a leap of faith and open a company, despite not having completed his formal education.

It is college by day and work late into the night for this music buff. “As I work on bringing down artists from USA and Europe, I find it easier as I work and interact with a lot of companies during these hours due to the time difference. It definitely gets hectic and stressful when I have an event during the week, and while it is manageable, sleepless nights are guaranteed. But then again, when you love what you do it all seems worth it,” he says with a contented expression on his young face.

Now that he’s actively into business, Vishwesh confesses that sometimes clients do not take him seriously when they consider his age. It takes a lot of convincing and extra work to get people to agree to his proposals. “One of the biggest challenges I face is that the kind of music I promote is not what people refer to as commercial music. It is more ‘underground’, more ‘soulful’, by and

large unheard of to the normal music enthusiast’s ear. The task ahead of me is to make this form of music attract mass appeal,” he tells.

Having travelled and studied music culture in other countries, Vishwesh feels that there is a lot of scope in India to promote new genres of music. His ideology behind starting his own company early is so that he can monopolise the market before the competition actually arrives on the scene. “I felt that it was better to get into the scene and make it big before larger competitors came in. I wanted to make a name for myself. Hence I decided to start as soon as possible. I also work towards promoting genres of music that aren’t really that popular such as Deep House and Techno,” tells the enterprising young man.

His plans for the future include bringing down artists with bigger names, those who can aid in creating recognition for lesser-known music genres. “In the near future I am hoping to make my company more recognised by the masses, therefore creating a better space for artists to come in and showcase their talent.”

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The Chemistry

It is a technique that blends physics and chemistry to transform the tastes and textures of food. The result: New and innovative dining experiences. It aims at integrating culinary arts, culinary science and culinary artistry into food, using traditional as well as modern cooking techniques. The end product: To take a dish, deconstruct it, change the texture and temperature, but still preserve its essence. It has to be familiar, but still radically different from the original. > That’s molecular gastronomy for you in a nutshell. > Ritz meets some of South India’s top propagators of this much debated school of culinary and gastronomic phenomena RITZ may 2015

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Bengaluru

Bengaluru’s Own Masterchef

His is one of the most respected names in culinary circles, not only in India, but in many parts across the world. Chef Abhijit Saha is the founding director of Avant Garde Hospitalities Pvt. Ltd, which currently owns and operates two critically acclaimed premium restaurants in Bengaluru - Caperberry and Fava - and his signature Indian restaurant in Singapore - Saha.

Text: Archana Shenoy RITZ may 2015

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Rated as one of the Top 10 chefs in India Chef Abhijit Saha was awarded the ‘Best Chef in India’ title at the Indian Restaurant Congress and Awards, 2013. He is also the youngest to have featured in the prestigious Hall of Fame list of 50 most influential people in the food and beverage business in the country.

Having fought his way up the ladder from being a humble kitchen assistant way back in 1994 (when he began his career at Taj Mahal Palace in New Delhi), to the owner of three standalone fine dining restaurants and a highly celebrated chef today, Abhijit Saha is a force to reckon with in the culinary world. He is an expert in classical and modern European and regional Indian cuisines. He was invited by the Culinary Institute of America as a Guest Chef and Speaker at ‘The World of Flavours Conference’ in 2004, 2005 and 2007. He was a member of the elite team of chefs who contributed to the ‘World Culinary Arts’ DVD which has won the ‘James Beard Foundation’ Award in 2008. In the past he also won the ‘IFCA Entrepreneur Chef of the Year’ Award 2008-2009 and the SICA ‘Golden Hat’ Award 2010 for outstanding contribution to the culinary field.

Outside his kitchen Chef Saha enjoys F1 racing, fine wines, travel, photography, architecture and design.

We speak to him on one of the most controversial subjects in the culinary world - molecular gastronomy and understand his views and ideology on the subject: Molecular gastronomy was a rage around 5 years ago. How do you see the trend progressing now?

Today molecular gastronomy has progressed to become the backbone of modern day fine dining and is a part of mainstream cooking in most top restaurants across the world and across cuisines. Unfortunately many chefs still treat it as sensationalism due to lack of knowledge and understanding of the subject.

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Do you still follow this method in your kitchens? If so how and in which of your restaurants.

Yes we do, both in Caperberry, Bengaluru and Saha, Singapore.

You were one of the first propagators of molecular gastronomy in Bengaluru. How has the experience been so far?

Probably not just in Bengaluru but also in India, and it has been a wonderful journey during the last seven years or so trying to understand the science behind cooking and creating exciting dining experiences for our guests.

What is different from Chef Abhijit Saha’s kitchen and the kitchen of other well-known chefs.

I would like to believe that quality, innovation and quest for knowledge are the three guiding principles in my kitchen. We try to do things differently but customer satisfaction remains the key goal behind all our actions. We do not always have to use complex cooking techniques to achieve innovation. Fresh ideas and common sense also make a difference. The highly popular Live Micro Green salad prepared in front of guests at Fava is a good example of the same.

Could you describe some of your best dishes created?

The list is very long but some of the recent ones are Deconstructed Cucumber and Mint Raita, New Age Aloo Papri Chaat, Tandoori Baked Brie, Kerala Vegetable Istew Espuma (Saha Singapore), Potato Bravas Modern, New Age Tiramisu (prepared and served live in front of customers), Smoked Savoury Goat Cheese and Bell Pepper Panna Cotta (At Caperberry), Micro Green Salad (prepared and served live in front of customers), Smoked Salmon Hummus, (served at Fava) to name a few.

What would you say a patron looked forward to when he came to one of your restaurants?

The experience is different in each of

trend that one usually follows?

Indian cuisine is in the cross roads of multi-dimensional evolution. Access to information, new ingredients and the realisation by chefs of new possibilities is leading to a lot of interesting work.

Flavours of regional Indian cuisine and usage of olive oil in Indian cooking are becoming more common.

Can you discuss your future plans… you’ve moved from Bengaluru directly to Singapore. Any further expansions?

At this point in time I am happy with my three restaurants. There are some plans on the cards but nothing concrete as yet.

my restaurants. At Caperberry guests can expect excellence in high quality European dining; at Fava it is about experiencing the varied cuisine of the Mediterranean region in a relaxed setting and at Saha one can expect innovation and modernity of regional Indian cuisine.

How important is it to evolve in the food business? Do you think too much modernity and evolution dampens the authentic taste of food?

Evolution is an eternal truth. Innovation

without knowledge can lead to disastrous results. As for me, I don’t innovate for the sake of innovation. The idea is to add value in terms of taste, flavour and presentation without diluting the authenticity of the dish. Today we have classics because someone decided to create them many years ago.

What are the new flavours / ingredients that one is experimenting with in India today? Can you pinpoint any one or two items or ingredients or is it a

Why did you not choose to expand the Avant Garde restaurants into other Indian cities?

It is about consolidation and the right opportunity. It will happen when it has to happen. I am in no hurry.

What is Chef Abhijit Saha known for?

For several things, considering that it has now been 24 years of my life as a chef!

The tag of being ‘The Forever Young Chef’ is something I like the most.

A message for young aspiring chefs?

Work hard and intelligently and treat the even most mundane of work with respect.

Try to understand things in detail and do not be in too much of a hurry.

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hyderabad

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The Kitchen King From having worked alongside culinary bigwigs to gaining experiences through his world travels, Chef Arun D’Souza of Olive Bistro Hyderabad is a true magician in the kitchen. He transforms simple ingredients and humble dishes into the finest of art forms with his magic touch.

RITZ may 2015

Text: Deeksha Marur

of Alinea in Chicago and together we would experiment with different flavours, textures and components.

What are some of the most unique dishes you have come up with?

I’ve done a ten layer lightened Mango and Passion fruit Trifle with aerated passion fruit foam, candied mint leaf and spiced mango salsa, as well as a caramel popcorn “shooter” with butter foam. Another spectacular dessert I did was Frozen Chocolate Clouds with Chilli and Orange compote.

Chef Arun started his career in Miami, working with one of the biggest and best steakhouses in the city while pursuing a degree in hotel management from Johnson & Wales University. After graduating in 2008, Arun refined his craft with a stint at the Miami Art Center working with culinary big wigs Anthony Bourdain and Jacques Pepin.

According to Arun, ‘Experience is only as good as what you take away from it. This brief spell with chefs of this caliber whom I look up to, respect and admire taught me a great deal, the least of which was how to incorporate my cultural background with my innate strengths as a cook and global citizen’. As a result of this influential period in his life, Chef Arun’s core food philosophy developed to embrace simple fresh flavours, using local, seasonal produce.

After Miami, Arun travelled the Caribbean, picking up styles, techniques and flavour profiles along the way from Panama to Jamaica. Now, after three years under the Olive umbrella, Arun has come into his own as an inventor and creator who, above all, revels in the simple pleasure of a happy diner with a full belly.

behind cooking. It explains why we brown chicken before putting it in a stew or salt eggplant before cooking it. The true term would not be molecular gastronomy but Culinary Chemistry. Even though there is a lot of experimentation, the basics of cooking remain the same.

Today in India, the trend is still in its nascent phase. There are number of good restaurants coming out with dishes based on de-construction and pairing unique flavours. But as with all trends, it will have its come and go phase.

How did you get into molecular gastronomy? What about this style of cooking attracted you to try your hand at it?

I got into molecular gastronomy while I was in Miami, a very close friend of mine had worked with Chef Grant Achatz

Who or what would you say is your inspiration to create a particular dish?

Trial and error is key! It might take months for a dish to be experimented on.

As chefs we are never truly satisfied, we keep on looking for elements to add to a dish. The other inspiration would be keep it simple and keep it balanced.

For those who don’t understand the concept of molecular gastronomy, how would you explain it?

It’s a new approach to cooking, using dehydration, sous vide, thickeners, gels and powders as a new tool in the chef’s arsenal. It helps create innovative and experimental dishes.

What are your personal food favourites?

The Classics - a medium rare steak with mushroom jus or a Stroganoff with homemade noodles! Good Pancakes with original maple syrup too.

What is your perception of the term Molecular Gastronomy? The trend, has been a huge hit internationally, what do you think is the scene with Molecular Gastronomy in India currently?

Molecular Gastronomy is a very broad term. It actually refers to the science RITZ may 2015

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Chennai

The Art Of Cooking Possibly one of the most renowned names in Asian cuisine in the culinary circles in India, Chef Ashish Singh is the most recent driving force behind the success story of Pan Asian, ITC Grand Chola, Chennai. His intimate knowledge of Japanese culinary art makes him one of the most respected in his field of expertise - recreating a form of cuisine that is not only old, but also ever-evolving and ultra sensitive.

Text: Diya Subramanian

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Chef Ashish Singh started his professional journey from Asian hotels where he worked for three years with various Japanese sensei’s imbibing himself with technical skills and the deep mystery of Japanese cuisine. His culinary journey took him to ITC Maratha Mumbai, where he was instrumental in creating the first live sushi bar for ITC Hotels. A well travelled chef, he then practised his art at the ITC Maurya in Delhi. > His epicurean adventure reached new heights during his stint in Singapore where he expanded his repertoire of ingredients and techniques making him a veritable warehouse of Japanese secrets. On his return, he was instrumental in crafting the menu for My Humble House and its successful opening. After journeying far and wide he is now at the ITC Grand Chola, Chennai heading the kitchen brigade at Pan Asian, which continues to thrive under his guidance.

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Molecular gastronomy was a rage around 5 years ago. How do you see the trend progressing now?

Although this is a trend that came into vogue some years ago, it is still developing. It started out being used in oriental cuisines but as the trend is developing in India people are getting more aware and experimenting with it in different types of cuisines. People in India are still learning to accept this technique of cooking as there is a lot to experiment with.

Do you still follow this method in your kitchen?

Yes of course, it helps in making dishes more appealing to the eye.

Molecular Gastronomy is not a way of cooking but it is a way of adding theatre to an already existing dish to give it that wow factor. It focuses more on the presentation of the dish rather than the actual cooking.

How did you develop an interest in this culinary technique?

My interest in molecular gastronomy began when I was in Tokyo last year learning about the Japanese style of cooking. I noticed that the kitchen had a section where they were using this technique and was intrigued. I then stayed back to learn the skills properly and perfected them before returning home to India.

What is different from your kitchen and the kitchen of other well-known chefs?

Asian cooking is always progressive; we serve Japanese, Thai, Malaysian, Korean and Chinese cuisines here at the restaurant. We follow the authentic style of cooking. We also work on authentic presentation for each dish; we try to keep it as rustic in flavour as we can with a modern touch to how it looks. All our ingredients are outsourced and imported from these countries therefore making the food authentic.

We also have a studio kitchen with an experimental menu.

I sit down every once in a while,

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with my team, and brainstorm about various ways to use skills learnt about molecular gastronomy to experiment and make food interesting to the eye, as well as to the palate.

Could you describe some of the best dishes you have created?

There isn’t a best dish, I would say, but more a particular ingredient. I have really enjoyed working with sea urchins. In Japan they are a delicacy and there is a lot you can do with them. Some of the dishes I have created using this unique sea food, I think are my best.

I work largely with seafood and I am very keen to find various kinds of fish or any seafood that are in season. I get them imported from specific regions. I have noticed that chefs across the city and country have been experimenting with newer and different sea food like sea bass, sea urchins and so on.

What is Chef Ashish Singh known for?

When I cook I believe I put my

How important is it to evolve in the food business? Do you think too much modernity and evolution dampens the authentic taste of food?

There is definitely modernization in the food industry and it does affect the authenticity of the food. But I feel there are ways to merge the two. For example molecular gastronomy is not a way of cooking but it is a way of adding drama to an already existing dish. It focuses more on

presentation, but alters taste only marginally. This is one way you can make the two sides of this spectrum meet.

What are the new flavours/ ingredients that one is experimenting with in India today.

Can you pin-point any one or two items or ingredients or is it a trend that one usually follows?

soul into it. I don’t believe a dish can be created alone; it requires the assistance of my team, they all understand the vision I have and help me create it. I am open about the various things that go into my dish and more than happy to take suggestions from my team.

A message for young aspiring chefs?

One thing they should know is that there are no short cuts in life and in the kitchen. You need to get your basics absolutely perfect before you can reach any higher levels of cooking.

Hard work always pays off.

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Bengaluru

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Bawalogy In Bengaluru If you’re passionate about Mumbai and all things Mumbaiya, then SodaBottleOpenerwala brings a tear to the eye and a nostalgic smile to the face. Modelled along the dying breed of quintessential Parsi / Irani cafés that dot the sidewalks of Dadar and South Mumbai, this restaurant with an ultra-long but cute ’n quirky name captures the idiosyncrasies of the community and all they are known for to the T

RITZ may 2015

Text: Archana Shenoy

I spent many-a-summer growing up in Vile Parle (East) in Mumbai. And I have my quirky uncle to thank for my first taste of Bun Maska! I couldn’t fathom how anyone could swirl a piece of bread (or in this case a bun) that was rock hard on the exterior, but buttery soft inside, in a cup of weak tea and still emit sounds of relish. The little fat deposits left behind by the Maska (butter) in the tea cup grossed me out.

But the impressions left behind in a little girl’s mind of that first visit to a local Irani Chai joint, and the numerous visits that followed, came back to life as I walked into SodaBottleOpenerwala on Lavelle Road in Bengaluru, recently.

A big bow to Sabina Singh, the extremely talented wife of restaurateur AD Singh, for having recreated the interiors of the typical ‘50s Parsi café. It’s like an instant walk down memory lane - wrought iron grills, red and white gingham table cloths with crocheted edging and covered with transparent plastic sheets, huge glass barnis (jars) at the galla (or cash counter) filled with typical, sweet Parsi treats ranging from Shrewsberry and ginger biscuits, Nankatai, little Mawa cup cakes, Kismi toffees, orange boiled sweets and Eclairs, the most treasured sweet treat

from my childhood.

There’s hoards of tin tea kettles, some placed artistically on old Atlas cycles parked outside the main entrance, others sit idly on window sills and play planters to winter chrysanthemums, while one really quirky one even doubles up as a flowing water body from its mounted vantage point on the interior wall. Then there’s the 15 litre oil tin strapped onto the bicycle stand (that we’ve all seen eccentric bawas riding around the Parsi colonies of Mumbai) adding to the authentic feel of the place. Not to forget the carom board, the identity of every self-respecting Parsi, that occupies place-of-pride alongside the old wooden armchair outside the café.

Walking indoors, hip-swinging ‘60s Hindi music and Jail House Rock by Elvis Presley assault your senses. You’re greeted by fading black and white mosaic floor tiles, weird instruction boards that order No Picking Of Nose, No Flatulence, No Asking For Discount, No Flirting and other such crazy edicts that only Rustom and his ilk can post. From the flashing jukebox to the chakku-churiya (knife sharpening) machine that is converted into a table, old cuckoo clocks, huge brass locks that you only every saw on your grandmother’s RITZ may 2015

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storeroom door, round black switches set in wooden switchboards that you always wanted to click when you were a child, chalkboard menus and other antiques that you only ever find now in thrift shops and junk yards, the décor is so typical of the bygone era that you feel you’ve actually gone back in time.

Coming down to brass tracks - the food - it is hard-core Parsi cuisine with a bit of Mumbai street food thrown in for good measure. If you’ve ever tasted Parsi food and want to relive those tongue tickling memories make sure you sample the Bhendi Bazaar Sheekh Parantha, Bohri Style Kheema Pav (served with authentic ladi pav that Chef Anahita N Dhondy personally bakes each morning), Kolmi Fry or prawns crusted with sliced onions and deep fried and Spicy Mushroom on Khari biscuit. if you are one of those with a slightly more adventurous palate, don’t miss the Bheeda Par Eeda or Parsi style eggs served on spicy okra, Tardeo AC Market Mamaji’s Grilled Sandwich that reeks of Mumbai street food culture, Bacon Kheema Macroni, a mixture so unique that only a Parsi could concoct it, and Chicken Farcha or Parsi style fried chicken, quite obviously with a twist on the original English take.

Those with hankerings for the most award-winning dishes mustn’t miss out on the Mutton Berry Pulao and Mutton Dhansak, both so famous that they’ve even been replicated in the boondocks in Canada’s mountains, substituting mutton with bison and venison! And of course, not to forget Sali Mutton served with an extra heap of sali (fried potato sticks) that you could mop up the tangy gravy with. Do note that the Dhansak is served in a brass tiffin carrier, the bottom compartment containing onion flavoured rice, the middle compartment holding Dhansak and the top most box containing kachumbar or cucumber salad that’s served with this famous Parsi dish.

A quick walk around the café would most definitely help at this point, just so you can make some space in that rapidlyexpanding belly to house some sweet treats. Do not miss the Toblerone Mousse, 5 Star Brownie, Irani Mawa Cake and the English Pound Cake. And if the devil in you isn’t satiated go for the velvety Caramel Custard that is par to none other served in the city.

And we’re not done yet…. No Parsi meal is complete without Lemongrass and Mint Hot Parsi Choy or Pheteli Coffee (referring to whipped) which leaves you with a cute milk moustache!

The menu is not extensive, its typical, including raunchy Parsi trivia that leaves you in splits, sometimes distracting the mind from the wondrous dishes on offer. But take time to sit down and soak in the ambience before you begin taxing your mind and then stomach with the gastronomic delights that weigh down your table. Dining at SodaBottleOpernerwala is all about the experience, the food being just one part of the nostalgic journey that begins with the flashy chequered signboard and ends with you having to step out and indulge in some of those edicts that Rustom banned you from partaking of in inside the café!

SodaBottleOpenerwala 25/4, Opposite Harley Davidson Showroom, Lavelle Road, Bengaluru Phone: +91 7022255299

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When fate hands you a lemon, make lemonade. A ten year old boy saw his first role model – a Deputy Collector who used to play the violin in his church choir, collapse during the service and die. But the soulful notes of music and the charm of government service lingered on in his mind, as he soon joined the Sainik School in Tirupur in Class 6. Those were “the best years” of his life, where it wasn’t just physical and mental prowess that was strengthened but a place where “the seeds of patriotism” were sown. Then came a second blow. A career in the armed forces, the predictable dream of any Sainik school alumnus, had to be shelved even before it could begin, with two terse words: “Medically Unfit.”

Life went on. A degree in History at Loyola College, laurels in volleyball, an eventful stint with the NCC that catapulted him to a Youth Exchange Programme in Canada and bestowed on him the honour of being adjudged the second best cadet in the country gave a young Davidson fresh hope to don the uniform. But a real shot in his well developed biceps came when he saw the then Director General Of Police Walter Davaram who had come to Loyola College as the Chief Guest of a function.

So enamoured was this NCC cadet by the super cop’s “presence, his walk, his voice, everything about him” that he set his sights on the Indian Police Service. Those years, as is probably the case even today, civil service aspirants made a beeline at the Jawaharlal Nehru University. A Master’s in Sociology followed by MPhil and the UGC Exam were a prelude to the gruelling Civil Services Examination. In his third attempt, Davidson Devasirvatham

earned the magical letters ‘IPS’.

It has been an eventful two decades for this 1995 batch IPS officer in Tamil Nadu.

His present posting as the Inspector General of Police (Administration) is perhaps the lightest assignment he has ever had. Yes, the IG (Admin) is a sort of HR Head of the one lakh strong force and is beset with issues from promotions and awards to disciplinary action and service conditions. But it’s not classic ‘field policing’.

From the word ‘go’, Davidson has been in the thick of action. After his training as ASP Dharmapuri, the young officer had to deal with caste clashes in Paramakudi.

Ditto in Cuddalore. As the SP, he had sleepless nights quelling caste riots, as molotov cocktails were hurled, buses were burnt and peace took a backseat. What may have come across as a headache was the “best tenure” for Davidson who relished the action. Having encountered challenges to Law & Order in Karur and Kancheepuram, he was saddled with the task of maintaining peace in Coimbatore, as the Deputy Commissioner, in the aftermath of the serial blasts. Streamlining chaotic traffic in Madurai was another feather in his beret.

By Sanjay Pinto

CORRIDORS OF POWER

Khakhi Action Hero

Then came hard core intelligence assignments as SP of the Special Branch and DIG Intelligence, which involved investigating the seizure of rocket launchers, the interception of an explosive laden boat and the interrogation of extremists from Andhra Pradesh and the Tamil Tigers.

An international interlude in Kosovo as RITZ may 2015

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Although I had heard a lot about Davidson (and another illustrious senior at Loyola College A.K.Viswanathan, now Police Commissioner of Coimbatore) from my History Professors, I saw him for the first time in Kancheepuram when I was on a sensitive assignment for NDTV 24x7. My formal interaction with him was during his Central deputation as the Zonal Director (South India) of the Narcotics Control Bureau and my deputation as Executive Editor of NDTV Hindu. “The NCB had been very active during the tenure of my predecessors T.Rajendran and Shankar Jiwal who had practically eliminated the India – Sri Lanka heroin route” with massive seizures, including a big catch of 50 kilograms in a single operation. “This was good exposure in tackling organised crime. I focussed on getting convictions in pending cases. In Mumbai, we arrested a kingpin operating from Dubai.”. Working in tandem with the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence and Customs, “we turned our attention to ephedrine smuggling to Malaysia as well as cocaine peddlers in Chennai.”

Like a child takes to the playground, Davidson’s eyes lit up when he was posted as IG West Zone in Tamil Nadu. “This 18 month period marked my return to Law & Order and field policing. I travelled to close to 200 police stations and studied the local crime spots. My posting here also satiated my love for travel as my jurisdiction was along the scenic Western Ghats.” If you put aside the three years in Intelligence, five in the NCB and a year in the UN Mission, you will find that Davidson has spent half his career in Law & Order roles. The field is his natural habitat. Ask not just his batchmates but his seniors and subordinates and the unanimous take is that apart from his

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(Pic: Davidson Devasirvatham, IPS, Inspector General Of Police (Admin) Tamil Nadu)

part of the UN Peace Keeping Mission has been an exciting highlight in Davidson’s career. “ We had to tackle the conflict between the Albanians and the Serbs.

Grenades were being hurled and guess what, we were armed with just pistols!

For 72 hours, we had to operate indoors from the control room. It was scary but I enjoyed every moment of my stint.”

competence, Davidson is the type no one can influence. One of them sized him up in a sentence “he is ramrod straight and his integrity is unquestionable.”

When he gets into his T Shirt and jeans, this top cop sways to the beats of Tamil, Hindi and English music. Quite active on the social media, many of his posts on facebook garner hundreds of Likes and comments. “I write and think a lot.” What about reading? “I collect books but seldom complete reading them! It’s usually 10 pages in the beginning and the end!”. The travel buff that he is, Davidson is also

happy to escort his home maker wife Junitha and his daughters Nivitha Sharon and Nikitha Sharon, students of Ewart School to Citi Centre or Express Avenue Mall. Thinking about the field brings on withdrawal symptoms. Life without the police mike and uniform is not the same.

But for an honest officer, beyond a point, it doesn’t matter where you are posted.

Davidson Devasirvatham, IPS. Pera Kettale Summa Athiruthilla!

(Sanjay Pinto is a Lawyer, Columnist, Author, Public Speaking Mentor & Former Resident Editor – NDTV 24x7)

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