TGS Life 08/10/2016

VISHAL KALE

PUNE, OCT 08-14, 2016 | www.thegoldensparrow.com

CAN'T STOP AT ONE While it can be a challenge to commit to a single instrument, here are some musicians who have explored and are proficient in playing several

OCT 08-14, 2016

TEJAS GAIKWAD

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STAGE An immortal play by Badal Sircar, Baaki Itihaas highlights the life and problems of a common man

STAGING A BRUTAL HISTORY

By Zainab Kantawala @kantawalazainab

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midst this never-ending rat race, one tends to forget that life needs to be cherished. For some, existence becomes so routine that it gets difficult to differentiate life and what is maintained by involuntary breathing. Pune-based theatre group Pushkar Rangmanch will explore this dilemma through the play Baaki Itihaas, which is written by the renowned Bengali author and playwright, Badal Sircar.

The play narrates an ordinary, yet unusual story of a common man who struggles to survive right from childhood,

through education, job, marriage and to his eventual death. “It talks about the ordeal of the subconscious mind of a person with a troubled past. It is about how he deals with life when the memories of cruelty, hatred and selfishness are fresh in his mind. For him, the challenge is to remain sane. The play talks about the strength of the tortured mind and how circumstances may mould it,” says Niraj Rai, the director.

The story revolves around a couple, Sharad and Vasanti who discuss their day’s plan on a Sunday morning. Both decide to go to their friend’s place but get caught up with the news of one Sitanath’s suicide. Sharad insists Vasanti make this incident a peg for

her upcoming story, and as she begins to write, the audience is shown the dramatised version of her penned thoughts. The second version is then seen through Sharad’s words, and his adaptation is even more thrilling. “As one thing leads to another, a small argument ensues between the couple as to what was the reason that forced Sitanath to take this extreme step. Vasanti takes it upon herself to write a short story putting forth her version,” he shares.

The play explores how man in the process of giving meaning to his life reaches stagnancy and ends it. “The third act includes Sitanath’s scary ghost who explains the reason behind his suicide. It is a story that every person

in the audience will relate to,” says Sonal Mahajan, actor.

Uniquely, all the actors are otherwise employed. Most are IT professionals or work in marketing and sales in various organisations. “We had to work on their their voice modulation, body language and stage presentation. It took months to get prepared for this play. But its is our aim to reach all working people, who even once in their lifetime have thought of doing theatre or being associated with it,” adds Niraj.

When: October 9, 7 pm Where: Jyotsna Bhole Auditorium, Shukrawar Peth zainab.kantawala@goldensparrow.com

When a parental issue turns into a laugh riot Prepare to hold onto your chairs, lest you fall off with aching sides as Mumbai-based Neo Ensemble adapts Yasmina Raza’s French play God of Carnage’in Hindi

By Salonee Mistry @SaloneeMistry

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n out-and-out comedy, everyone who goes to watch the play Halwa should expect to be in splits during the show courtesy its crisp storyline, smart humour and exceptionally talented cast. It is the story of two sets of parents who have come together to sort out a terrible fight that their kids got into with each other, ending in one of the kids losing a couple of teeth. The group takes a passive approach to comment on good and bad parenting, and what it means to these four characters to be parents.

It was when they were reading an English version of the same play that the ensemble realised the potential it had. The plot and situations were timeless, and would appeal to an audience even a decade from now. As

the crew discussed how the same situations occurred in their own childhood, they decided to adapt it in Hindi as this space remained untouched. It took them a month to write it and another 15 days for rehearsals.

Ask director Shonita Joshi how difficult it was to adapt, and she says, “There were so many references and situations in the French version that were completely irrelevant as per the Indian perspective, take the proverbs and rhetorics for example. We had to reconstruct the characters completely too. It’s the situation alone that is similar to the French

story, while the rest has an Indian twist,” she explains. She has been associated with theatre for a while now, although her background is in journalism.

Managing the rehearsal schedules was the toughest of all for this team. All the artists have parallel careers in acting and Bollywood, which made it difficult to coordinate.

However, since the crew is extremely passionate about theatre and had taken up this project voluntarily, they eventually found a way to make time, she adds.

Neo Ensemble quite literally means ‘new

group’ of artists. The group came up with this name while booking their first venue for the performances. Taking to the stage to promote theatre since April this year, they have had 21 shows of two different plays to date.

Currently, they are ten members strong and based in Mumbai.

The cast of Halwa comprises Varun Kulkarni, Vighnesh Sinkar, Shonita Joshi and Rhea Rai. They have all previously been associated with different theatre groups in Mumbai such as Rangshila Theatre group and Gillo Theatre. Varun and Vighnesh come from the corporate sphere and Rhea has done her phamacy degree along with a Masters in Business. All of them have left their conventional careers behind, taking up acting full-time. “We used to sit every week to read plays from all over the world. I got interested in direction after watching a play called Kaumudi by Abhishek Majumdar. I was fascinated by the director’s view and how he was able to bring out his own opinions about an established historical event. I wanted to try my hand at direction since then and am absolutely loving it,” shares Shonita.

When: October 8, 6:30 pm to 9:15 pm Where: Jyotsna Bhole Auditorium, Shukrawar Peth salonee.mistry@goldensparrow.com

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Aadar Malik competes against 89 competitors from 56 countries for the title of ‘World’s Best Comedian’

JOKES APART

By Zainab Kantawala @kantawalazainab

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tand-up comedy in India has gained massive popularity in the last few years.And while many comedians focus on making it big in the country, Aadar Malik is making news internationally. He is the only Indian comedian selected to compete for the The Laugh Factory’s World’s Best Comedian title. He will be competing against 89 comedians from 56 countries for a space in the grand finale, to be held in December in Helsinki, Finland. “I sent them a video and it got picked.

If something decent materialises from it, I will probably do another one of my songs and a couple of new bits.

But I consider myself lucky to come up with something quickly while I was in New York,” he says.

Aadar is a man wearing many professional hats. He is an actor, musician, stand-up comedian and part of the popular comic group, Schitzengiggles. He is the son of Abu Malik and nephew of music composer Anu Malik.

Being a singer, he enjoys mixing music with his comedy.

“Earlier, I thought I had to choose. But frankly, I am enjoying the combination of doing all the music, acting, comedy and filmmaking together. Couple that with an extreme lack of sleep, no money and you have got yourself

Dancing to win hearts

By Salonee Mistry @SaloneeMistry

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ell-known celebrity choreographer Nikhil Anand is modest to talk to, passionate about dance and talented at what he does. Dance was, is and always will be his passion, and it is largely responsible for his success to date. It was an out-of-the-blue thing when he decided to join a dance class with two friends. Little did he know back then that dance would soon enough become a career. In a candid conversation with TGS, Nikhil spoke about his dance journey, setting up his dance institute and his future plans.

Founder and Director of Elevate Dance Institute and a public figure, he has donned many hats over the last few years. Having worked with renowned dancerchoreographer Shiamak Davar and awarded The Best Dancer in SDIPA Shiamak Davar Institute, he established an identity for himself through his dedication for the performing arts. He even performed at the Commonwealth Games held in Melbourne, Australia in 2006.

“No one from my family is in the entertainment business. Of course, it was difficult to even think of a career in dancing but it was something that appealed and called out to me. I don’t think becoming a choreographer in Bollywood is what I am working towards. My only

TGS LIFE OCT 08-14, 2016 PUNE

ENTERTAINMENT a winning combination,” he laughs.

Besides this, he has played a lead in Indo-Canadian film Under the Same Sun. He got into the stand-up scene after portraying the character of a comic for his play, Papier mâché petals for the Thespo Theatre Festival. After that, there was no looking back for him.

His most noted number is She Called Me Bhaiya, among others including a song about his pet goat, and another one about how his father had sex-educated him. “The start of our YouTube channel sure has been the turning point for me, but the low point was when I almost decided to quit comedy altogether a day before we made the decision to shoot that song,” he shares.

While many Indian comedians in the recent past have found themselves in trouble for their jokes, Aadar tries to remain on the safer side. “I fell into trouble just a few days back. It’s been happening more of late. But nothing major, I try to be as objective or well-informed in the bit itself, even when I am flirting with the line of objection or being ‘offended’,” he adds. He has recently started his own vlog channel on YouTube called ‘Aadar’.

“It’s very new but I am trying to make it look well-edited and as entertaining as possible. I want to explore simple formats for parodies and covers of songs I like,” he says. zainab.kantawala@goldensparrow.com

From joining a dance class on a whim to becoming a celebrity choreographer, Nikhil Anand has come a long way

aim is to help anyone and everyone who wants to dance and share my knowledge,” he explains. While Nikhil has not choreographed for any films yet, he has worked on many prestigious award functions such as Stardust, IIFA and Filmfare. He is a favourite when it comes to judging college competitions and tells us, “There is so much talent that is just waiting to be tapped. The college kids are extremely enthusiastic when it comes to dance and with proper guidance, they all have the potential to make the country proud.

In an attempt to take dance to every section of society, he has tied up with the Traffic Police department of Mumbai and organised a flash mob for road safety week.

He made the second-biggest human Indian flag with 2500 people, followed by a rally of 8000 people during this week. He was awarded the Navi Mumbai Gaurav for his contribution to this project.

“One thing that I genuinely feel the dancing industry needs to buckle up on is inventing new dance styles.

Whenever I have even a minute to spare, I am constantly trying to mix dance forms and come up with something new. It is what keeps me motivated and going,” he tells us.

In his career, Nikhil has choreographed more than 7000 performances and his academy has trained more than 1,50,000 students in over 40 dance genres. salonee.mistry@goldensparrow.com

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TGS LIFE OCT 08-14, 2016 PUNE

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POETRY IN MOVEMENT

After spending many years learning Kathakali in Kerala, it was an obvious decision for Annette Leday to associate it with her creative works. Mithuna, which she will perform in the city next week, marks a new step in her long creative journey

By Salonee Mistry @SaloneeMistry

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ance enthusiasts are in for a treat next week as Annette Leday performs with a unique fusion of French and Indian dancers who are all a part of Company Annete LedayKeli. A meeting of cultures, Mithuna is an original production which seamlessly blends the French performing arts with Kathakali. The performance revolves around a Sanskrit concept that reflects on gender; the gender of words, of moments and of beings. It celebrates the diversity in the cultures and uses poetry to weave a beautiful image. TGS spoke to Annette about what inspired this performance, why she loves what she does and the challenges she faced along the way.

“The choreography focuses not only on the duos performing but also gives space for individuals to shine, and it highlights a few gender issues. There is no narrative as such and each viewer is free to project his or her own story line if needed. The structure of the choreography rests on a poetic evocation of the complex forces at work between human beings in our world today,” explains Annette. She trained as an actress in France and came to India in 1978 to study Bharatnatyam in Madras.

She then also spent several years in Kerala studying Kathakali at the Sadanam and Kalamandalam institutions, participating in performances of the two

troupes in India as well as abroad.

Her company was scattered for a while after their last production. It was about two years ago that the company felt it was time to get to work on a new venture, as there were still many things to explore and express together.

They looked back on what they had achieved through their many years of collaboration and felt that the strongest challenges in their work had always been the notions of encounter and dialogue.

Kathakali has been a critical choice in all her productions as she finds the form a fantastic blend of theatre and dance.

After spending many years learning Kathakali in Kerala, it was an obvious decision for Annette to associate it with her creative works.

“It is through this performance that we can show how even after coming from different cultural backgrounds and having varied techniques, art has the ability to lift all possible barriers and produce new meaning and beauty,” she tells us. The process of creating, constructing, sculpting a dance piece and then watching her dancers perform it in public is what thrills her and keeps her motivated every single day. The event has been organised by Alliance Francaise de Pune and is open and free for all.

When:October 14, 7pm onwards Where:Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru Auditorium, Ghole Rd salonee.mistry@goldensparrow.com

Aam Aadmi Kalakaar Indie artist Kavish Seth to woo Punekars through his shayari, kavitaein, kahaniya, chakris

By Ekta Katti @Ektaak

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hile new to writing, he has made sure that his work reaches audiences at the earliest. Meet Kavish Seth, 24, who’s shayari, kavitaein, kahaniya and chakris will surely mesmerize you.

Originally from Uttar Pradesh and an IIT Mumbai alumnus, Kavish picked up the knack for writing four years ago. “The moment I entered IIT, I thought I should become a scientist or something, but when I started writing poems, it certainly made more difference,” said Kavish, who then started writing in Hindi to reach a larger audience.

His work is engaging visually even as the audience can also read his notes, which he presents at venues. An independent artist and

song-writer, Kavish, who takes the audience into the mind space of the artist, writes in Hindi, Urdu and English.

Kavish evolved as an artist when he started working for Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) in 2013. “Travelling surely changes a person. I got a chance to go to every corner of India for party work. I used to attract people through my kavitaein and songs. And that’s how I thought I should carry forward my passion for writing and singing,” he reminisces.

For the love of music Being an indie artist, Kavish knows what a struggle it can be to reach an audience. In 2014, he started Zubaan, a platform to give indie artists a chance to spread the essence of their music. He started collaborating with artists and performing live all across the country. “It was during these concerts that I realised that people do appreciate this kind of music,” he said.

His work has earned him fame and he is in the process of releasing his songs. In 2015, Kavish started working on a 14-string

instrument called Noori, which which is a fusion of the Sarod, Rubab and Guitar. He has also acquired a patent for the instrument, which is in its finishing stages.

A street artist Kavish is humbled by the love and support his audience showers on him. He firmly believes that music can help survive odds. Talking about a particularly personal incident, he says, “A couple of months ago, my friend and I thought of performing on the streets and earning a day’s meal through it. Early morning, we started playing in the gallis behind Jogeshwari temple. By the end of the day, we reached Yaari Road and by then we had performed around eight gigs.

The audience was obliged by our stunts and offered us food in return,” he said. Kavish has performed in Pune several times and is elated that the people here understand and appreciate hissort of music.

When: October 15, 6pm Where: Gyaan Adab Centre tgs.feedback@goldensparrow.com

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TGS LIFE OCT 08-14, 2016

Witness some of the best talent in Indian Classical Dance forms this weekend, as renowned dancers celebrate art through the dance festival Parikrama

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A celebration of

classical dance

By Salonee Mistry @SaloneeMistry

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une-based Kalavardhini Charitable Trust, whose main focus is the performing and allied Indian arts, is organising a two-day dance festival as a part of its continuous endeavour to propagate and preserve Indian Classical Dance. Parikrama; A journey that never ends, will bring to you artists of international fame. This will be the eighth year of the festival and will comprise two sections: Arghyam and Abhivyakti.

Artists such as Shweta Prachande, Ileana Citaristi, Sucheta Chapekar, also the

founder of Kalavardhini Charitable Trust and Sunil Kothari will be part of this year’s festival, among others.

Arghyam will be held on the first day, while the second will begin with a Symposium called Samvaad, conducted

by Sunil Kothari. Sunil is not only a renowned Indian Dance historian and scholar, but is also a lecturer and an acclaimed dance critic. Abhivyakti will follow this symposium. The festival will be held on October 8 and 9 at Shakuntala Shetty Auditorium, Karnatak High School in Karve Nagar.

As all the dancers get ready for the festival, TGS got talking to some of them.

SHWETA PR ACHANDE Dancing became a part of her life when she was five years old and she is currently training under Guru Priyadarshini Govind in Chennai. She has a Diploma in Dance Studies from Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance, London (U.K.) and also an M.F.A. in Bharatnatyam from Bharathidasan University Tamil Nadu. This graceful dancer performed all over the country and found her own niche on the international stage. A rugby player too, Shweta was a part of the first Women’s 7 team that participated in the Asian Women’s Championship.

“It’s quite a challenge to be proficient in more than one art form, but studying dance definitely changed the way I view movement in dance,” she feels. This powerhouse of talent has also worked her charm on the screen, playing the lead in a short film titled Notes of Silence. The film was screened at the LA Women’s International Film Festival and The NY Indian Film Festival.

At the event, she will be performing on the first day and will also present a solo Bharatnatyam performance.

R AMA KUKNUR Since she can remember, Rama Kuknur has been fond of dancing and pushed her parents to enroll her in a class. The experience of living with one’s guru is something that she absolutely cherishes, apart from many other fond memories that her dancing journey has given her.

Performing as part of a trio alongside Arundhati Patwardhan and Yashoda Patankar, hers will be the very first performance, titled Triveni. The recital has several layers to it and a part of it is composed by her guru Sucheta Chapekar and a part by renowned dancer Rama Vaidyanathan.

“Dance is truly like meditation for me and is a huge part of who I am. Considering that it came instinctively to me and it is something that I wanted to do since I was really young, I could not think of a better profession,” she tells us.

ARUNDHATI PATWARDHAN A daughter of Sucheta Chapekar, dance was something that was around her all the time. Arundhati often attended her mother’s shows and rehearsals, but did not begin dancing till she was about 15 years old. An avid swimmer, it was an injury before a National competition that forced her to rethink her choice, and that is when dance called out to her. As soon as she could, she began training under the guidance of her mother, and now is a full-time dancer. “It is the girls that I teach and who look upto me that motivates and pushes me to get out of bed and head to the institute with a big smile. I enjoy my own practice too, and it’s become a way of life for me now,” she tells us. Arundhati is part of the trio Triveni that will open the festival.

ILEANA CITARISTI This Italian-born Odissi and Chhau danseuse needs little introduction.

Living in Odisha since 1979, she learned Odissi under Guru Kelucharan Mohapatra and Mayurbhanj Chhau, from Guru Hari Nayak. “I was in search of a land where I could express in an unrestricted way those inner questions of the soul. After completing my doctorate in philosophy and having worked for some years in both traditional and experimental theatre in Italy, I followed the callings of ancestral and inexplicable paths and reached Orissa,” she says, when asked about how she got interested in Odissi. In 2006 she became the first dancer of foreign origin to be conferred the Padma Shri for her contributions to Odissi. At the event, she will

perform on the second day and her recital will consist of three different compositions. The first is Mangalacharya which is in praise of Surya, Pallavi which is all about Orria rhythm and melody and is her own composition, and Eklavya which is a composition by her guru.

SUCHETA CHAPEK AR Founder of Kalavardhini Charitable Trust, Sucheta Chapekar did her Arangetram way back in 1963. She was trained under Parvati Kumari and K. P. Kittappa Pillai. She will be performing a solo on the second day, Nritya Ganga, which has 80 compositions in it and is 75 minutes long with live musicians. She could not be happier about the response and love that she has received. Shehas won hearts in the country with her elegance and skill and also done an international tour, performing in London, Paris and Rotterdam. “In the hope that I would be able to promote the dance form that gave me so much, I started using Hindustani Classical Music for my compositions as opposed to Carnatic music. It allowed for the audience to connect to the recital more and appreciate it further,” she explains. She was awarded the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award for her contributions to classical dance in 2007.

TGS LIFE OCT 08-14, 2016 PUNE

INDULGE

By Salonee Mistry @SaloneeMistry

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few things are critical for a place to qualify as a good hangout: good ambience, the right company and some great liquor and food. When you get all of this together at reasonable rates and have the option to play some life-size games as well, fun is expected. Just this week, TGS visited well-known Kalyani Nagar eatery The Little Door and we were in for a surprise. Not only has the place got a new name The Little Next Door but they also have a completely new menu and cocktails that you’ve likely never heard of.

Being an ardent chocolate lover, the Frosted Oreo which is a mix of Baileys, Cookies, Cream and Chocolate Syrup had to be ordered.

Nothing like what you might have heard of or tasted before, it was neither too sweet nor was the alcohol to overpowering. When it comes to food, fusion and innovation is the key with the new menu. Our meal started with some Kidneys and Falafel- mini pita pockets with a kidney bean patty, tandoor spiced humus, potato hash and pickled salad. There was just the right amount of spice in the dish and was a great way to start the meal. Even if you are the kind that does not like beets, the Cheetroot Croquettas are a must. The fact that the peculiar beetroot taste is almost lost in the mashed potato, and the cheesy centre makes the dish an easy favourite. Our recommendation when it came to the vegetarian dishes were the Zucchini Fritters. A contemporary take on the quintessential ‘kanda bhaji’, these fritters are the perfect chakna no matter what your drink.

For meat lovers, the Pig in a Blanket is highly recommended. Succulent and flavourful corgi pork pandy baked is neatly tucked inside an olive bread blanket shaped like little pigs.

Your new neighbourhood hangout A place that most of us already know and love, The Little Door, was recently revamped with an innovative menu and a new name: The Little Next Door

The presentation is so pretty that one might even find it hard to bite into the cuteness. If you are the kind that likes a sweet-tangy start, Sticky Wings is the way to go. Essentially chicken wings marinated with Mediterranean sea salts, rosemary, peppercorns grilled with olive-caper-plum-sauce and glazed with Old Monk. Seafood lovers also have quite a spread

to choose from. We were offered the Prawioli, which is prawn ravioli bathed in green chilli garlic oil, flavoured with sage and infused with champagne. The prawns was a little too dry and not seasoned enough, however if you are willing to experiment, you could still order it.

Stuffed with the starters, we had no space to feast on the main course, but the Stuffy

You are what you eat

By Gulal Salil @gulalsalil

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ayathri Desai is an expert at rollercoaster rides. She calls herself a professional cook, and not a chef, which is rather modest, seeing her short but sweeping experience in the culinary field. Before she became a cook, Gayathri was a psychology and marketing student, and then an advertising professional at Rediffusion. Being a people’s person, pushed her into becoming the spirited cook she is. An avid traveller she is always in search of new ingredient’s and this interest was her initiation into cooking.

“I found a really cool flat in Bandra while working and because of the rent, we couldn’t afford a maid. My work timings were erratic, but somehow I managed cooking something new everyday”, she recollects. Her boss caught her looking at a recipe in office, “He asked me what I was interested in. I was clueless, so he just said, okay, give yourself six months here and decide.” She says that she was always interested in doing something hands-on and working at a desk was not suited to her temperament and so she quit her job.

Culinary schools strictly require prior work experience and she had none. So she took her camera and went to Bavda, a village near Pune. Her two-week trip, was her point of clarity. “I stayed with a big family who grew everything they ate. They told me to occupy the one bed they had, but I refused and slept on the floor

as they did. I helped with their cooking and everything and shot a lot of footage. I was so overwhelmed by what they ate.” After coming back home, she had her footage edited into a documentary and took the chance of sending it to Northwest Culinary Academy of Vancouver as an application and began school there in 2013.

She recalls how clueless she was on her first day, “I was standing

Breast, Peppered Beef and Sunbathing Prawns are worthy dishes. For dessert, the Eight Texture Chocolate Cake is a must try for the rich chocolate taste and perfect balance of sweet and bitter. If you have a sweet tooth, the apple Cinnamon Cigar Roll must be on your list.

All in all, the experience was a great one.

The ambience is lively with great music, the innovation in food makes you want to order everything and the life-size Jenga and ‘XO’ games only add to the fun. salonee.mistry@goldensparrow.com

with a huge knife in one hand trying to cut a carrot and about to cry, because I was suddenly unsure about cooking. My instructor came to me and told me that I had a long way to go. That I should just stick to this if I like cooking,” she reminisces. Learning how to cook there was an extremely tough task. “School was the most difficult experience for me. I was impatient, and the one thing cooking taught me was patience,” she adds. Gayathri had to plate a dish five times till she perfected it, as her chef trashed it every single time in Burdock and Co, which was jam-packed with people.

Then one day, Gayathri bumped into a lady running a small restaurant in her hall called Dock Lunch. She joined and cooked a new menu every day. They would both get their vegetables themselves and decide on the specials that would leave the kitchen.

Pop-ups are a popular Western concept, where restaurant chefs bored of cooking the same menus put up a temporary kitchen with a menu of their choosing. She put up her first pop-up at Dock Lunch and called all her friends for help. She had kneaded dough for 60 people the night before. Her menu was kathi rolls, paneer bhurji rolls and aam panna with kala namak. Customers were bowled over. Her journey as an experimenting culinary reaped rewards that day.

Gayathri flew to India nine months ago and also travelled to Mexico to understand their ingredients for some time. She now does pop-ups every month in the city. Perfecting a dish at a restaurant for years on end is not her calling. From her initiation into masalas in Bavda, she has come a full circle as to what cooking means to her. It is the people and the ingredients that make the dish that inspire and influence her. The tenor lies in knowing what Julia Child once said, ‘you are what you eat,’ she adds. gulal.salil@goldensparrow.com

By Gulal Salil @gulalsalil

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HOTEL NAGPUR This small shack in Sadashiv Peth is easily the most popular joint in Pune for Nagpuri Savji mutton curry. The restaurant doesn’t allow any time to talk or mull about life. It has one straight funda and that is food. Customers getting out of their Mercedes’ and Maruti’s alike, wait outside the old eatery in queues for one pair to exit and the next to enter.

“We don’t have iPads to take orders or ask for feedback and all. We open at 12.30 everyday, and by the 2.30-3 pm, our curry gets over,” says the proud and passionate owner, Mahendra Parshionikar. The Parshionikar’s were originally saree sellers who hailed from the Parseoni village of Nagpur district. Hotel Nagpur was a shop earlier, which was converted WAH! MARATHI In a departure from the myriad Marathi thali experiences found in Pune, Wah! Marathi Dine N Wine is a rare à la carte outlet for traditional Maharashtrian food.

Located at Seasons Mall in Magarpatta, it is Yogesh Magar’s personal project, to establish a restaurant which serves Maharashtrian cuisine, fine dine style. “People need to know that Maharashtrian food is beyond vada paav”, he implores. Thus, Nagpuri Savji cuisine has an obvious place on the restaurant’s menu. In an effort to be close to the original and yet be unique, Wah! Marathi’s Savji curry is also yet another rendition in itself. The restaurant fixes the dish to subjective demands, to match the customer’s palate. The recipe is no secret. Before Wah! Marathi’s menu was finalised, a team of cooks and chefs researched Maharashtrian cuisine for six months by travelling to towns and villages beyond urban centres.

Describing the team’s finds, Executive Chef Harish Nirgude explains how the Savjis were a sub-caste of the Dhangad tribe. They would carry whole spices with them and butcher their cattle for food. Onions were a lucky find for the nomads and thus, the curry is traditionally prepared without onions today. He mentions

TRACING SAVJI

OCT 08-14, 2016

The Savji cuisine of Maharashtra exists in Pune in the tastebuds and cooking hands of its contemporaries. The community has a long, undocumented history to tell

RAHUL RAUT AND VISHAL KALE

he Savji community of India has its origins in the Malwa region. It is a mix of diverse cultures that spreads out to different Southern regions from the 13th century onwards. They are a little-known, undocumented caste and historical corroboration about them is rare. Every person who knows of them or is a Savji themselves has a different background to give. However, their cuisine is the one thing that has flourished.

Savji cuisine is an extremely hot potboiler of dishes which gets its trademark quality from the masala that the community makes. Its renditions depend on the region the masalas are being prepared in, and on the weather. Nagpur and Solapur are the most popular cities for Savji mutton curry. While Nagpur’s version is an outstandingly spicy delicacy as it essentially branches from the added chillies of Vidarbha, Solapur’s parallel is on the slightly milder side.

However, none are for the faint-hearted.

The dishes enjoy a tame existence in Pune as the climate here is much cooler, and as we have been told, Puneris don’t like their food too ‘hot’. It is important to note that ‘hot’ doesn’t refer to the quantum of chillies used. The charm is in the spices. This dark grey masala is an adventure, to say the least. It is a gastronomic voyage only available at a few daring outlets in the city. This is the story of four such exemplars.

TGS LIFE

into the eatery by Mahendra’s father.

The restaurant doesn’t have central tables for families to gather around and eat. It has small two-seater compartments, with the table facing the wall. It is like a king’s darbar, where the subjects sit in opposite lines with a walkway

in the center leading to the reception. And the king here, is the curry.

“Being a Savji cook is an upadhi (an honour),” Mahendra says. His demeanour resonates with the satisfaction that his version of the dish has no onion in it whatsoever. He says, “I don’t do mixing to make the quantity seem more. Nor is my mutton boiled before and served in a ready-to-eat fashion by cooking on order.” Hotel Nagpur’s mutton is cooked twice a day in a handi, once for the afternoon window, and the other for the evening, from 7 to 10 pm.

Hotel Nagpur’s acclaim lies in the fine balance Mahendra has achieved in the masala.

Unsurprisingly, he holds his recipe close to his heart. The dish is just hot enough for Puneri tastes, while being low on oil. The restaurant flaunts that it does not have any other branch.

PUNE

INDULGE

PLOT TWIST: SOLAPUR SAVJI PICKLE BY HUNGRY BELLIES Sameer Manthalkar is an ardent Savji fan who hails from Solapur. His brand is Hungry Bellies and he operates out of his two kitchens. Besides preparing a wide range of Solapuri, Mangalorean and other cuisines, Sameer has emerged on the radar for his Solapuri Savji pickle. Kermen Aspi, a food reviewer at the Facebook group ‘Pune Eat Outs’ describes it like this, “The aroma hits you and one taste of that thick red gravy sets your taste buds on fire. I have never experienced anything like this ever before.”

Sameer started cooking with the realisation that he was spending more than 50 per cent of his earnings eating outside everyday. He went on to start cooking for his friends, and eventually turned the activity into a full-time business. “No one knew about the Savji pickle. I think I am practically the only one preparing this and selling it here,” he says. Describing why his pickle is priced at the higher end, he states firmly, “Only those people will spend money who are really interested in the food.”

The nine month-old kitchen supplies dry and gravy Savji pickle, among other regional pickles by the kilo to a willing customer base across the country. Sameer plans to open a home food restaurant by year 2017.

HOME FOOD FROM MARINARE

how the food would be lavishly spiced to meet nomadic requirements, a flavour which would be unbearable for today’s urban population.

“I use lot of laung in my Savji preparation.

We try to keep it 80-90 per cent close to the traditional dish,” he explains.

Sharad Bagde believes that meat equals marination, explaining the name ‘Marinare’ for his home kitchen operation in Aundh.

The self-taught chef has been cooking fulltime for the past three years, after turning his occupation in the field of construction to a side business. He works with his wife, Kruti Bagde and his mother. Sharad states, “All my meats are marinated for at least nine hours before I cook them.” Strictly following this tradition, he expects his customers to order from him well in advance. That being the only rule, he is a passionate foodie and chef who is always ready to prepare entire courses for as few as two people. The menu is always selective.

The chef travelled to Dhulia 16 years ago and tasted the Savji curry there, coming back

with a fond inclination towards the masala.

Since then, he has tried out various versions of the curry and keeps taking feedback from his friends in Nagpur. As the years went by, he kept fusing the feedback with his own experiments and developed a lip-smacking flavour. The Nagpuri version which is proudly his own has garnered exceptional popularity amongst his customers.

In the past three years, Sharad has extensively unraveled Indian coastal food and imbibed the recipes into his cooking. He offers Sri Lankan, South Indian, Maharashtrian and Bengali cuisine. Kruti, his mother and him cook for and manage Marinare. Their motto is ‘What we eat, is what we serve.’ gulal.salil@goldensparrow.com

CAN'T

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By Zainab Kantawala @kantawalazainab

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ust like linguists, there’s something awe-inspiring about a good multi-instrumentalist. Musicians such as Paul McCartney, Prince and Beck have set the bar pretty high.

Prince alone is known for playing 27 different instruments with excellence.

Just like these international maestros, some Pune-based multi-instrumentalist too have made it big in the music scene.

ANUP MURARKA Growing up as music nerd, he was the kid who tried to get his hands on any instrument he could grab a hold of. He started playing toy instruments when he was kid, then started with the keyboard a few years later. He'd listen to melodies and play them on his toy keyboard. Th is was just the beginning. He later took up an engineering course, but music accompanied him everywhere.

“My mother is a singer, so it comes naturally to me. In college, I sang for various festivals and community events,” he says.

Today, he plays the guitar, piano, drums, percussion, mouth organ and even handles vocals. Each instrument plays a specific role in the overall blend of sound, whether you're playing in a band or any kind of ensemble, he feels. “I never found it difficult to learn SANJEEV PANDKAR Sanjeev has been active in the field of music for over 20 years. Coming from a background in which music was secondary, he decided to commit to it anyway, his dedication is finally paying off. He plays drums, bass, keyboard, flute and he is a vocalist too. “Singing was my fi rst love. A couple of years back I lost my vocals, and couldn’t sing after that. But I found solace with instruments,” he says. He eventually started strumming the guitar and dabbled with various other instruments. He then practised drums and keyboards, and started jamming with friends. " The biggest challenge for me was learning flute. A bet with my brother encouraged me even further to master it," he adds.

Playing different instruments gave him different sonic colours to choose from. He improvised and eventually mastered every instrument. “Knowing so many instruments has helped me in communication and understanding of notes and rhythms. It also makes composing a song a lot easier,” he says. Sanjeev has been associated with various pop-rock bands and Indian fusion bands as well. He has previously played with bands such as Hook , Mystic frost, Fusion Ensemble among others. Currently, he plays with Strange Brew, Chehre and Julpandra. “I became so serious about music that I even quit my job. For me, music was never about entertainment; it was about the education. I eventually started classes and devoted my time there,” he says. He now runs a music school called 'New Breed' and also performs with his students at various gigs, playing guitar and flute simultaneously with the band. Sanjeev also has five albums to his credit, which include three rock albums with Mystic Frost, Strange brew and one each with Fusion Ensemble and Wasabi.

them. I think the passion and drive to get them right them made it easy for me,” he adds. Knowing multiple instruments helps him in compositions, and makes him an efficient artist. He is a former member of the band Nyasa, and now wants to set up something on his own. “I want to make it a solo project, like a one-man band. It’s a new concept here and it will take time to materialise,” he adds. While understanding the nuances of various instruments has expanded his knowledge, but his first love will always be the piano, he believes.

"If you play multiple instruments, you become a greater asset to a band," Anup says. "Particularly during performances, you can fit yourself in wherever there is a need. It has happened during a gig; whenever my drummer was absent, I have covered for him,” he shares.

ANURAG KUMAR If you have heard After Acoustics, you are bound to know this young lad. Anurag Kumar who plays bass, drum, acoustic guitar and provides vocals for the band. “I believe in creating sounds that are different, and I make sure that people trip on it,” he says. Besides, he also plays tambourine, keyboard and ukulele. He believes that knowing and understanding multiple instruments enables him to have a unique perspective on his sounds and doesn’t keep him confined. “I was very much inspired by the band Mumford and Sons, and tried experimenting with different instruments. After that, I saw the Vodafone ad that has a guy playing combining various instruments and playing;

TEAM TGS

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While it can be a challenge to commit to a single instrument, here are some musicians who have explored and are proficient in playing several For them, it’s not just about picking up an alternative musical tool and giving it a try. They are dedicated and have used their skills to great effect in their careers.

GAURAV BHOSALE Each instrument has its own language, and the more languages you know the more you can communicate and understand, believes Gaurav. He plays keyboard, daf, dholak, tabla and side rhythms.

“Coming from a musically-inclined family, I started learning tabla at an early age. I later joined a band in college where I played the drums and keyboard,” he says. Gaurav currently is part of the sufi rock band Rudraksh and plays percussion for them.

Being proficient in more than one instrument allows him

to grasp various functions on a deeper level. “Sur and taal are important in tabla and dholak. And knowing various instruments helps me to understand the rhythm and notes better,” he says.

Spontaneity for him is critical, as is riyaz. “You have to be dedicated and give time if you are really passionate,” he adds. He is inspired by Sanket Nair, and avidly follows Coke Studio.

Gaurav has a customised stand that makes it easier for him to shuffle between instruments while on stage. Next on his list is learning to play the saxophone.

KULDEEP RAWAL Kuldeep is a professional musician and has been performing for the past 20 years.

He has done his Visharad in Hindustani Classical Music and has studied vocal music under the Gwalior Gharana.

He plays the tabla, dholak, dholki, harmonium, flute, djembe, keyboard and many other instruments with equal dexterity. Even more surprising is that he is visually challenged, but this has never

“In the world of music it is important to grow and be versatile” that intrigued me to learn them,” he shares.

On stage, he is seen sitting besides a stand that has been specially made for him and his gear. His kick is getting the audience going. “So many people come backstage to ask me about how I do this. They appreciate your work, and that’s what keeps me going,” he says. Coordinating between instruments and following rhythms is still a challenge, however. Occasionally, he gets confused and misses a beat, but the band covers for him, he says. “For a situation like that, we generally change the flow of the song. The feet may slip from the paddle, it’s happened before. After playing three to four songs, sometimes the hands and feet start to hurt, so a little bit of stretching is important,” he says.

hampered his passion to learn music.

“Music was taught to me in school, and over the years the fondness for music has only grown,” he says.

Today, he works as a session musician as well as an educator with Artsphere.

He also composes and arranges music for fi lms along with his partner Avinash Thombre. “After becoming proficient at playing one instrument, I considered the option of learning another. And this went on. It gives me satisfaction to know so many instruments,” he says. He believes in the world of music it is important to grow and be versatile. In his free time, he listen to Indian music maestros and

learns from them. Practical knowledge is most important, he feels. "I admire the work of Pt. Omkarnath Thakur. He hits the right notes with the audience and presents the concert really well," he shares.

He loves the continuous improvement he experiences from playing music, going from

strength to strength just doing what he loves.

“So why not have this feeling about more than one instrument? The bigger your toolkit, the more advantages you have over other musicians, so it always beneficial to learn and know more,” he says. zainab.kantawala@goldensparrow.com

TGS LIFE OCT 08-14, 2016 PUNE

THRILL OF DRIVING

Jaguar F-Pace to start at Rs 68.40 lac

J

aguar Land Rover, the Tata-owned storied British auto manufacturer has announced an India price for their F-Pace SUV. The vehicle will be available in four variants in all, with a choice of the new 2.0 litre inline four-cylinder Ingenium motor or a 3.0-litre V6 motor. The smaller motor generates 177hp, while the V6 outputs 296hp. The 3.0-litre in particular produces a rorty 700Nm of torque via “twin parallel sequential turbocharging” that sends the SUV from 0-100 in a claimed 6.2 seconds.

Only diesel motors will be available at

British-Indian manufacturer’s first SUV to be launched on Oct 20

launch, and the vehicles can be booked across India today.

Like the XE and recently-updated XF, the F-Pace also makes extensive use of aluminium wherever possible to keep weight down and efficiency up. The result is a near-perfect 50-50 weight distribution. Of course, exterior styling follows the evolving Jaguar design language, using the adaptive LED headlights we’ve seen on other models as well as their J-shaped strip of DRLs. There will also be a more exclusive “First Edition” F-Pace available with the

PRICES (EX-SHOWROOM, DELHI) Jaguar F-PACE 2.0l (177 hp) Diesel Pure:

Rs 68.40 Lakh

Jaguar F-PACE 2.0l (177 hp) Diesel Prestige:

Rs 74.50 Lakh

Jaguar F-PACE 3.0l (296 hp) Diesel R-Sport:

Rs 102.35 Lakh

Jaguar F-PACE 3.0l (296 hp) Diesel First Edition: Rs 112.55 Lakh 3.0-litre motor. Changes include exclusive 20” alloys, more luxurious interior

appointments and an “Adaptive Dynamics” system to control suspension damping.

Pre-bookings open for Terrano Automatic N

issan has announced the prediesel generating 110PS and 248Nm booking process for what they are of torque. However, with the AMT calling the “Terrano 6 Speed Advanced version, you also get Hill Assist Control Auto Drive”. The automated and ESP. manual transmission will only Enhancements over be offered on the rangethe previous models Gets a 6-speed topping XVD Premium include electrically automated variant. Prices will folding exterior rearrange between Rs. view mirrors with manual 13.75 – 13.85 lakh, exintegrated turn transmission showroom, Delhi. signals, anti-pinch If you thought the driver side windows, like its Duster Duster AMT didn’t a new driver armrest, stablemate quite cut it for you, perhaps soft touch plastics on the the Nissan version will be dashboard, and door trim. more suited to your tastes. The White backlit illumination company will launch it with a new on door switches, new door trim design, sandstone brown body colour, as well one touch turn indicators, and automatic as a claimed 14 new enhancements. The warning for emergency braking will be engine remains the venerable 1.5-litre standard across all variants.

The designer-engineer duo has been invited to SPAN Tokyo for their work in tech and design development

By Gulal Salil @gulalsalil

Two friends and their Journaly

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hashwat Pradhan is an engineer. Satyajit Mittal is a designer. Both are childhood friends. Shashwat runs a technology company called Emberify as Founder and CEO by day, and plays electronica music as a DJ in his partnered outfit called Deep Sky Orchestra, by night.

Satyajit Mittal is an iF Public Value Student Award winner for his design solution that helps eradicate the open defecation, rife in India. Both of them have worked together to create an app which was featured in the Mac App Store in less than a month of its launch.

Journaly is a life journaling app for the Mac, soon to launch for Android and iPhone. The back story, however, goes way back to when the friends were in school.

When asked about how their collaboration shaped up, “We have been hitting each other up for intense discussions since ages now,” both Satyajit and Shashwat explain in the same tone. The duo have been friends for much of their lives and when they are not busy working, they are busy channeling their common intellectual wavelength to create something new. Collaboration sounds too formal for what they

Satyajit Mittal (left), Shashwat Pradhan (right)

actually d o .

For them, it is conflict-filled brainstorming on any fascinating idea.

Emberify hit it big when it launched its quantified self app Instant, which was featured on the App store as the #1 Lifestyle app, as well as on the Google Play Store. Instant gamifies life actions

to inform the user about their everyday activity and habits. The app is a passionate undertaking

by Shashwat as he really likes how data science can be used to reflect upon the self. “So how many new people do you meet per week as a journalist?” he enquires, undoubtedly chasing another data point.

An engineering graduate from COEP, Shashwat got into tech development with a startup he co-

founded in college. Blackberry was the platform of choice then, and Instant was just a nascent mobile addiction monitoring experiment.

Having won accolades with that, both Shashwat and the app evolved towards what Emberify and Instant are today. Emberify has seen leapfrogging success in the two years since its inception.

Satyajit Mittal realised he wanted to design and not do art.

“I used to sketch as a kid, and I

Mentalism: Real or a persuasive art?

I

n the sci-fi movie The Matrix, there’s a sequence in which Neo goes to meet the Oracle for the first time. He meets a bunch of potentials in the scene, from amongst whom, one young boy in particular interacts with Neo. The boy picks a spoon and bends it without any physical interaction with the metal, supposedly using the power of telekinesis. He tells Neo, “It is not the spoon that bends. It is only you.” The Matrix is one of Israeli mentalist Roy Zaltsman’s favourite movies. He hails from Eilat, which is a small tourist location in Israel and recently was in Pune performing at the PVR in Phoenix Marketcity, Nagar Road.

While his title places him as a telepath, intuition expert and magician, he is also a keynote speaker, corporate entertainer, mind trainer, producer and so on. At 43, Roy is supposedly one of the busiest working mentalists’. His Facebook page projects him as a Public Figure, as he does all sorts of programs for his global clientele. From common magic tricks to being blindfolded while mind guessing, he constantly shuttles between India, US, Spain, Israel and lots of countries in between to hold training seminars and companycustomer meetings.

Roy Zaltsman is a mentalist. He can walk on broken glass, read people’s minds and know the time on a watch by just listening to its ticking sound. Telepathy seems second nature to him. Or is it just the art of persuasion?

Describing his Indian experience, he remarks, “I see a lot of familiarity in the Indian culture and one that we have back home. Our family and community values are quite similar and so are our rituals, for example, spraying holy water in ceremonies.” His show at PVR was one filled with laughter apart from the tricks he did. Quoting dialogues from Bollywood like ‘Mogambo Khush Hua’, or greeting a senior audience member in Marathi with ‘Kaka, Kaki kashi aahe?’ seemed like playful order for him. He recalls, “I have walked on burning coal in front of Fakirs and they were all so surprised that I could do it.”

Certain sleight of hand tricks are common

within the magician coterie, howsoever new for the commons themselves. Roy, being a generous entertainer and also a smart businessman, taught the audience a few tricks in the post-event dinner which took place at the Incognito restaurant at the venue. He shared the secrets behind tricks like making a napkin-covered glass go under a table through the surface, and making a coin disappear from one fist and reappear in the other.

was confused between art and design. We, as a community, have an overriding notion that both are generally the same,” says the Product Design graduate from MIT, Design. Eventually, his father guided him to the right path. “I realised that I liked solving problems through functionality.”

Between his graduation and his first job, he applied as an intern at Emberify. “I actually drafted a mail to him. He never spoke with me regarding that. I dared not to ask him about it”, says a sniggering Satyajit. Both started working on Journaly together, as Shashwat pitched the idea to his design counterpart. The app appears to be giving number one journaling app Day One a hard competition. Journaly aims to allow a lot more customisability for the user, making journaling a more seamless experience. “We travel quite a bit and think about taking notes on the journey, and nothing really comes close to what we aim to build,” says Satyajit, who’s day job is that of a User Experience Designer at another company.

Both Shashwat and Satyajit are occupational problem solvers, and data quantifiers working together just as friends. In Satyajit’s words, they are “fighting everyday over ideas which are good”. The duo has been invited to Tokyo for the 2016 Google design conference called SPAN. gulal.salil@goldensparrow.com

When asked how he does what he does, he simply said, “I have been doing this since I was a kid. I always used to like amazing people with my performances and my first was at a hotel owned by a friend at the age of 15.” As to whether telekinesis is real and if he has a special ability, he just remarks, “There are some people who have the innate ability to paint while I don’t. I was born with the ability to bend the physical with my mind, and so, I do that.”

Roy’s work is more about powerful intuition and telepathy than magic and guessing wrong doesn’t make him regret it. He says that it just adds a natural flair to his performance. He handles his business himself and his vision is very clear, “The show business is about 80 per cent business and only 20 per cent show and most people fail to grasp that.”

Does he bend spoons? He advises that for a starter to reach that level, one can exercise focusing on a candle flame without losing concentration, “You’ll slowly align yourself to the flame and it will feel like you are controlling its radiance, colour and so on.” As the potential says in The Matrix, “it is you that bends.”

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When Draupadi came to New Delhi

Trisha Das believes heaven wasn’t a joyride for Indian goddesses. Her debut book, ‘Ms Draupadi Kuru’ is her way of giving them a second chance

By Salonee Mistry @SaloneeMistry

I

t’s havoc as well as fun when goddesses from centuries ago come down to earth for a small vacation. Trisha Das, in her latest book ‘Ms Draupadi Kuru’, talks about just this. Inspired by a book that she was reading, her latest work of fiction is fresh and out-of-the-box.

Her protagonist Draupadi is bored of her perfect life up in heaven and decides to come down to Earth for a short vacation with her friends, Amba, Kunti and Gandhari.

Landing in New Delhi, they are in for a surprise as so much has changed over the years, yet much is the same.

TGS spoke to Trisha about her debut as an author, and whether she thought she was funnier than her brother, comedian Vir Das. Trisha clearly wanted to give mythology a fun twist.

“While thinking of the storyline and how I wanted it to read was easy, it was difficult fi nding time to write it. Managing pregnancy and my mommy-brain along with fi nding the mental peace to write was quite challenging,” she says. While neither of her parents are from the entertainment field, there was just something about story-telling that appealed to her. Both she and her brother are risk-takers when it comes to the kind of work that they do, and that is probably what helps them grow, she adds.

Even while writing, Trisha relies a lot on her fi lmmaking skills, she tells us. An avid traveller, her sojourns often reveal wrongs that should be righted, and this is what she has documented on fi lm. Everything that she has experienced while on her travels becomes inspiration. “Very often, when I travelled, there were a lot of things around me that I considered to be wrong.

Making documentaries and talking about the issues was my way of hoping that their lives would change. If you

have the ability to change society through art, then one must do everything to make the best of this talent,” she shares. Trisha has made 40 documentaries to date and even received a National Award for one of them.

The characters in her book especially Draupadi draws a lot of their characteristics from Trisha herself.

The fi rst-time author’s love for mythology and her inspiration to work around this subject comes from the innumerable stories she heard from her grandfather growing up. Before we ended our conversation, we asked her who she thought was funnier, her brother Vir an acclaimed stand-up comedian or she herself, since the book is tongue-fi rmly-in-cheek. “Suprisingly enough I have never been asked this questions,” she tells us. “But I must let you know that if you ever meet us in person, neither of us are funny.It is only when we are at work when the humour comes pouring out,” she adds. salonee.mistry@goldensparrow.com

Tales of 20 women City-based author Prachi Garg has puts together the life stories of twenty superwomen in her debut book

By Zainab Kantawala @kantawalazainab

A

superwoman can be described as a woman with extraordinary powers like those required to cope successfully with the simultaneous demands of a career, marriage, and motherhood.

The book ‘Superwomen’ by Prachi Garg endorses the idea that entrepreneurship is inherent in women and describes how they have a tremendous capacity to take risks in everything in their lives.

The book is a compilation of stories of twenty women entrepreneurs who have made it big in their ventures and made real what remains a far-fetched dream for most. These ladies are all between twenty and thirty years of age, and have fought all odds to make it. “The aim of the book is to encourage entrepreneurial thinking and motivate more women to take the plunge, and to come out of their shell. I have shared an interesting journey of how these women played all their roles to perfection, aligning their families with their ambitions, showing the world their true mettle,” says Prachi, who is a writer, avid traveller and entrepreneur herself. She started ghoomophiro.com, which organises corporate tours based on customer requirements.

The ladies Prachi has profi led have started innovative ventures encompassing a range of services between social and retail, from supporting victims of acid attacks, to online retaildof lingerie; from pet care products, to quirky merchandise; from empowering folk artists, to providing clinical assistance to those going through tough times; from creating happy readers to making religious ceremonies simpler, these entrepreneurs have opened avenues formerly unexplored.

“Each narrative starts with their professional qualifications, their journey through all odds, the organisations, courses that helped them to reach to that level,” she adds. Some of the women featured in the book are Medhavi Gandhi, founder Happy Hands, Ria Sharma, Founder Make Love Not Scars, Richa Singh, cofounder of Your D.O.S.T. and many more. “As a woman, I always felt that many of us are unable to pursue our dreams, because of societal pressures and many other reasons, so I thought of speaking to a few fellow entrepreneurs who did things differently and achieved their goals, and gave their voice a medium in the form of Superwomen,” she says. She feels this book is a must read for college students and aspiring entrepreneurs.

Next in the pipeline is her book on couple entrepreneurs called Better Halves of Start-ups. It is already complete and should be out this year. “It is the story of couples who live together and work together! The book talks about the challenges and fun involved when working with spouses,” she shares. zainab.kantawala@goldensparrow.com

VR CINEMA COMES TO PUNE

By Salonee Mistry @SaloneeMistry

W

ouldn’t it be exciting if you could experience a film from the comfort of your home just as if you were present at the location? Imagine the chills that would run down your spine if you actually felt like you were near the sea when sharks attack like they do in JAWS. Lost The Plot and EnglightenVR bring to Pune an evening with one of the most exciting and new mediums for visual storytelling; VR Cinema. A virtual reality (VR) cinema experience uses computer technology to create a simulated environment within which the viewer can interact with 3D worlds.

Highly immersive, this medium is definitely the next big thing to look out for, with festivals such as

The Tribeca Film Festival in New York premiering an entire selection of films made for a VR narrative style. TGS spoke to Pranav Ashar, founder of EnlightenVR to ask him about the work they do, what the future looks like and the challenges they face doing what they do.

With almost every large technology company be it Google, Samsung and even Facebook experimenting with VR, this is now a global visual phenomenon.

Whether you are a tech junkie or someone looking for a unique experience, this event is for everyone. With three Samsung powered Virtual Reality headgear units, you will be able to spend 10 to 12 minutes watching India’s first VR short films, followed by a live interaction with Pranav and U.K. Dasari, who is also one of the founders of VR Collective, a

honey-bee network dedicated to the fast growing Virtual Reality community in India.

“The VR medium is both challenging and exciting at the same time. The more you work with it, the more you will learn about it. There is a lot of scope with this medium alone and it is where cinema is headed. Working with this medium helps you break barriers every single day,” says Pranav. At the event, three films, two of which are a part of a longer 10-part short film series focusing on the tradition of oral story telling unique to the Indian subcontinent will be featured. The films to be screened include The Flowering, which is shot in Pushkar and explores the myth of Savitri and Brahma. It uses Pushkar’s backdrop to narrate the tale of Brahma discovering the beautiful Gayatri and marrying her. The Golden Ray, shot in Jaisalmer is the second film which pays homage to filmmaker Satyajit Ray and his contribution to Jaisalmer’s tourism. It takes you through a short but important period in Indian Cinema. The third film titled Elephant will premiere at the event.

One of the biggest challenges in using this technology to make films is that there are no guidelines to follow. VR filmmakers are the ones setting benchmarks everyday and it’s all about trial and error. “The use of VR is both complicated and simple. It has been used enough and more internationally, and

Dive into the Portal

By Gulal Salil @gulalsalil

S

hantnu Arya got his first compact camera from his dad when he was in the 12th standard. That was his initiation into photography, and from there on began his journey into understanding light. Video mapping is the art of projecting light in various designs and forms on a screen, to create an immersive visual experience for the viewer. It’s a bit like the visualisation plugins available for popular PCbased music players. Portal Video Mapping is a projection mapping startup in Pune trying to tap a method which is relatively new to the scene of audio-visual experience in the city. While LED visualisers have existed for long, Portal is a distinct entrant to the field, bearing its risks head on.

Co-founder Shantnu joined MIT Design with the idea that he would get to learn about photography. He took up visual design and simultaneously did wedding shoots for pocket money. The year 2013 was a kindling time

At Lost The Plot this weekend, Punekars can experience a oneof-a-kind film screening as virtual reality cinema comes to the city for the very first time

now it’s India’s turn. There are times when about 17 lenses are at work all at once, and it creates a different experience all together,” shares Pranav. The 360-degree

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setup, including the phone, costs somewhere between one or two lakh, he adds. salonee.mistry @goldensparrow.com

Projection mapping is a new art form in Pune. Local co Portal Video Mapping has planned to take the risks involved

for Shantnu, as he realised that he was deeply interested in the dynamics of light.

“While researching on projection mapping, I discovered that people were mapping light on humans and plants,” he says in an intrigued tone, recalling how he got pulled into the field.

The graphic design major interned in point-ofsales marketing where he got to validate his interest for the first time. “I saw a stage in the supermarket where we put a cube on the ceiling which was visible from all sides,” he recalls, “we then projected advertisements on the cube.”

However, it was when he attended a seminar by digital mapping master Bart Kresa at Kyoorius Design Yatra in Goa, that he felt this was it.

Shantnu soon collaborated with transport design batchmate Vikrant Khedekar and art and fundamental design student Naman Kumar Daga to start Portal. They designed the

structure of a cube inside a cube inside another, which didn’t work out well for music-based visualisations. Once college ended and Shantnu’s focus went back to working on Portal, the team started experimenting. Portal is called so not just because, as he puts it, “takes the viewer to a different state of mind” but because their first gig-level structure was a circular portal-like surface. While Naman and Vikrant contributed to the screen design, Shantnu planned the

visuals that would be mapped on it. It took the newcomers around six months to just get the huge surface made.

The year 2015 was filled with challenges for the company. While the dream was real, its actors were going broke each passing day.

Shantnu cultivated a contact at popular pub High Spirits but setting up a gig was impossible, as there was no DJ who knew them. However, his focus was strong. “I could have easily done only wedding shoots and minted money by working half a year and chilling for the other half,” he says, but he wanted to make it work.

After months of perseverance and double work shifts, Portal finally got a launchpad with Deep Sky Orchestra on September 4. His college mate Satyajit Mittal helped him get the gig, and he also received a lot of help from his friends like Nachiket Jadhav, Amey Patil and Ravi Vazirani.

The response was phenomenal. Shantnu posted a status update on Facebook on the day of the event sealing his initiation into the scene. It crisply said, “Portal is opening tonight at High.

Let’s dive in.”

SP

EMBRACE YOUR ETHNIC SIDE

TGS LIFE OCT 08-14, 2016 PUNE

SHOPPING

Arati Krishnan, 27, is a fashionista along with being a marketing and sales professional. She picks five outfits from her wardrobe that everyone must have

Black & white

An evening in style

A must have no matter what, a plain white kurta and black leggings is ideal to exhibit how ‘less can be more’. Plain chappals and simple hanging earings add to the charm.

Kurta: Daram; Rs 800 Churidar: Fabindia; Rs 400

This classic black top with printed palazzos is perfect for an evening out with friends. Your hair can either be tied or left loose and simple danglers complete the look.

Top: Forever 21; Rs 500 Pant: Westside; Rs 600

Perfect fusion

RAHUL RAUT

Blue jeans, a white top and colourful bangles; what could better describe fusion? This attire is ideal no matter where you are headed.

Top: Auromode; Rs 1,200 Jeans: Forever 21; Rs 1,000 Footwear: Zara; Rs 3,000

Comfotable and chic

This one piece is extremely comfortable and can be worn to light get-togethers and early evening dinners. It will definitely get heads turning when you pair it with plain silver danglers.

Dress: Global Desi; Rs 2,500

Stylish and edgy

Want to make a statement without wearing too much?

This combination of a printed crop top and black harems is the way to go.

Top: Panna’s creations; Rs 300 Pant: Anokhi; Rs 800

— Compiled by Gulal Salil

14

Tough times have made him who he is today

V

ishal More who is just 26-years-old has seen far worse in life than most denizens of Pune can even imagine. Hailing from Pargaon village, the Shivajinagar Police Constable has lived more than the first quarter of his life trying to fix a square meal for the day with his father and mother. A fisherman before his current job, the young man has worked endlessly and even had sleepless nights catching fish so that he could sell it the next day for a simple meal. His day ususally started by selling his catch, attending school, riding a rickshaw in the evening and picking and delivering sand from the river banks before he got back to the waters once again. He also managed to take out time to play cricket professionally for the money since every little bit counted.

The struggle for him was as real as it gets. “I have two sisters. One of them had to be married for which we had to borrow a sum amounting to Rs 80,000,” he mentions with a smile, even though his eyes were saying something else. The

TGS LIFE OCT 08-14, 2016 PUNE

FEATURES

young boy sends money back home to help his parents repay this loan even today.

“Growing up I realised that my family was struggling hard everyday to feed us. I felt duty bound to help them out and so started working at a young age”, he says, while describing how his former life has taught him the value of everything. “My parents wanted me to join the police force, but I didn’t have the money to afford books to study for it. I would borrow all the reading material from my friends and study from that”, he recollects. Vishal joined the academy in 2014 scoring 98 out of a 100 possible marks where as students who had been preparing from much before and had ample resources got lower scores.

He curretly lives in Chinchwad with his aunt and uses the bus to commute to his headquarters everyday. He says with a subtle pride, “Even today when my senior calls my mother, she cries feeling happy, that I have reached somewhere in life. ” (As told to Gulal Salil)

unekar

City celeb chat

Name – Chirag Patil Profession – Actor Three words to describe me Hardworking, Charming, Bindas I love my job because - It doesn’t feel like a job Best Advice I have received No substitute for hard work When buying something, the first thing that catches my eye is – Shoes, I have more pairs of shoes than my fiancée has What’s your inner animal Tiger The first thing you notice about an attractive person Eyes The perfect start to a day is - A Good Workout Your current four-wheeler White Toyota Fortuner Your fitness regimen - No regimen as such just do everything in moderation Your food indulgence – Dry Mutton Books by your beside - AutoCar The first site you visit when you fire up your computer YouTube Your favourite city - Mumbai Ideal Holiday - Kenya “Masai Mara”

(As told to Salonee Mistry)

WEAR THE IKAT RIGHT

S

ayuri Design Studio by designer Komal Joshi brings youth a magical fabric that has been transformed into apparel worth dying for. From long flowing skirts to petit and bright kurtis there is nothing that the versatile Ikat cannot do. A lot of style and yet achieving a poise of utmost comfort and ease, an opulence that stands out amidst crowds and the fit that makes heads turn.

STYLE GURU

Komal Joshi

•Ikat anarkalis can be so much fun. The combination of colours and intricate detailing of borders, yoke’s, pockets etc give a fresh and vibrant look. Ikat anarkalis can also be worn as dress for a boho chic look.

•Stylish long ikat tunics teamed up with a comfy pair of palazzos, leggings or even denims are very much in trend.

•An ikat mini dress worn with a black blazer, an ikat top worn with fitted white trousers, or a loose-fitting neutral tank tucked into an ikat skirt are perfect examples of how to wear this bold print and make a statement.

• Ikat print scarves and handbags are also wonderful ways to add an exotic touch to an everyday work outfit without going too bohemian. Scarves are easily one of the best fashion accessories ever. Ikat print scarves with an Ombre finish are definitely a must have in your closet.

•Do it the traditional way. Go all desi in an Ikat kurta paired with patialas, mojris and chunky silver earrings at work or try the flared Ikat ethnic skirt with a tank top and a messy braid for a day out with the girls.

(As told to Salonee Mistry)

"I WAS WAITING M FOR A GOOD SCRIPT"

TGS LIFE

By Zainab Kantawala @kantawalazainab

OCT 08-14, 2016 PUNE

BUZZ

I had to up my game in front of John, Sonakshi

A

ctor Tahir Bhasin says he had to stand out from John Abraham and Sonakshi Sinha in their forthcoming film Force 2 as they both are experienced action stars in Bollywood.

The 29-year-old Mardaani star says he had a lot of pressure to look as real and effortless as possible because he was working in the action genre for the first time. “I had to up my game in the film because when you are doing a film with an action superstar like John and actress like Sonakshi, who has just come out of her action film Akira, you have to do your best,” Tahir told PTI. “At the same time, it was extremely challenging for me to stay calm while performing action sequences. Fortunately, it worked really well because almost everyone on sets from my director to the crew did their job with unity.” Tahir says he underwent a difficult training session for the film and his co-star John, 43, helped him a lot during that period.

“There was a lot of functional training involved. But John has been immensely supportive. We even had a great Hollywood trainer on the sets for specific action sequences.

anjiri Fadnis' energy is palpable, infectious almost.

The actress was last seen playing one of the three wives of the protagonist in the film Kis Kisko Pyaar Karoon. She's currently basking in glory of the success of her recent flick Wah Taj and also has a few other projects in her kitty. “It was a brilliant experience working with Shreayas.

I always have admired his work, and this was a great opportunity for me to grow in terms of acting. He was really sweet and helped me out with the dialect,” she says.

The film gave her the opportunity to play a non-glamorous character, a role she's been waiting for. “It gave me an opportunity to play something different, and helped me grow as an actor. It was a concept-driven film,” she adds. The film was finished in 2014, but was released only this year due to issues with the censor board. “The censor had stopped the film for two years, as they thought it was too communal. It was surprising and strange to me, as it had nothing offensive. We took the matter to court and it immediately got cleared,” she says.

The actress is currently busy shooting for Marathi film Sarva Mangal Savdhan alongside actor Raqesh Vashisth. The film is a family drama with a pinch of comedy, and Manjari is super excited for her Marathi debut. “The Marathi industry is beautiful. They are coming up with great content. I liked the film Lai Bhari, Natsamarat, and I plan on watching Sairat soon. I was waiting for a good script and a performanceoriented role, and it’s finally come to me,” she says.

Manjiri's busy days continue.

After this, she has Jeena Isi Ka Naam Hai and Ba Ba Black Sheep in the pipeline.

“John was the one, who put me in touch with the trainer. He was so helpful and an amazing person.”

Praising Sonakshi, Tahir says, “When you get along with these people and they treat you with absolute respect it just makes your job so much easier. She was a great co-star.”

Tahir, who played a kingpin in his Bollywood debut Mardaani, will again be seen in a negative role in Force 2 but the actor says there are no similarities between the two characters. “My first film was very static. It was about a guy, who sits around and makes phone calls but in this film we have chase sequences, bike races and often helicopter cameras so reacting to all of that technology as well as maintaining the character it was completely different.”

Tahir says he was waiting for a good project after the success of Mardaani. “It was really important for me to pick a project which had great story, producer as well as director and I think with Force 2 all those boxes were ticked.

The choice of your second film is as important as your first one.”

‘My music is an extension of what I see and feel’

By Salonee Mistry @SaloneeMistry

A

fter singing hits like Preet from Khoobsoorat, Badla Badla from Badlapur and the recent Nachde Ne Saare from Baar Baar Dekho, Jasleen Royal is quickly becoming a force to reckon with. Her unusual voice quality, staggering confidence and determination to do well is taking this Ludhiana girl places. In a quick conversation, TGS spoke to her about her upcoming work, how she fell in love with music and what inspires her compositions.

She was merely six years old when she started experimenting with a small keyboard that she found around the house, and later began giving lessons when she was 14. As curiosity got the better of her, she began creating tunes and melodies, trying to grasp whatever she could by watching other musicians and how they performed. Being selftaught, the dedication required to turn this into a careerwas immense, and there was just something about music that kept her going through all of this.

“My music is an extension of what I see and feel. It gives my emotions a voice and allows me to convey

a message to a larger audience. Learning music is a never-ending process, especially since I have had no formal training. I can never stop experimenting and trying something different,” she tells us. A lot of what she knows about music today is what she has learned while on the job, working with and meeting different people along the way.

Talking about her future projects Jasleen says, “The hope is that I get to do something different every single day.” Raatein which is her next in the impending Ajay Devgan starrer Shivaay is a romantic number sung alongside Aditya Sharma.

The fact that her mother was an ardent poetry lover helped her understand and work with lyrics, she explains. Loving, and being confident about yourself can get you a long way, Jasleen believes.

This is also why she almost never sends scratch versions of her music to producers, preferring toaudition live for them. It gives her and the producer a better feel of what to expect when they collaborate, she feels. In the future, she would love to be the voice of Alia Bhat and Priyanka Chopra, and work with people like AR Rahman, Amit Trivedi, Zoya and Farhan Akhtar. salonee.mistry@goldensparrow.com

DISHA TAUGHT JACKIE STEPS ON BANG BANG

A

ctress Disha Patani says Chinese superstar Jackie Chan, with whom she has worked in Kung Fu Yoga, is fond of dancing and he even learnt some moves from her on a song from Bollywood film Bang Bang!. “I taught him Hindi and he taught me a famous Chinese song. He sung it, he is a very good singer,” the actress told PTI. Disha, 21, calls it a blessing to have worked with the much-loved actor. She says she was totally in awe of Chan, 62. “He is an inspiration. He is amazing. It wasn’t intimidating but I was in the fan zone. First time I met him I couldn’t believe it was him. when he came and talked to me, I was like Oh my God he spoke to me, he knows my name!’ So I was in that fan zone for may be a week or more,” she said.

On how she bagged the project, the one-film-old actress says her training in gymnast paid off. “They asked if I can do action. I sent them my gymnastic videos and they liked it,” she said.