WEEKLY MAGAZINE, MARCH 11, 2012Free with your copy of Hindustan Times

THEOTHER VOICES

From politics to Bollywood, here are the virtual moversand shakers who wield the maximum online clout

“I couldn’twalk”But masterchefVikas Khannalearnt how to run Play it again, man

Gaming can fetch you big bucks

New series!Author Judy Balan on being a singleparent AND trying to find The One

VIR SANGHVIDim sum rage

RAJIV MAKHNIMWC’s hottest phones

SANJOY NARAYANFrank Zappa magic

SEEMA GOSWAMI Time to rushindulge

4 WATC H O UT FO R

11.03.2012Swati Chaudhuri I don’t understand why you guysneeded that lengthy disclaimer about how you neverwatch TV, how it was 100 hours of torture and so on(Sari, Sindoor & Glycerine awards, March 4). We get it– you guys are so above it all. Why not give the task ofwriting the piece to someone who actually connects withthe medium? Or will they take away your coolness card ifyou admit to watching Hindi TV (which you obviously do.Random TV viewing will not result in such details).Ashish Kulkarni Thanks, Download Central, for onceagain hooking me to a new band, Fanfarlo. I read this column even before I read the headlines in HT.Jai Singh I don’t agree that Bombay restaurants out-shine Delhi’s (Rude Food, March 4). Bombay may haveniche restaurants but Delhi has versatility and variety.

facebook.com/hindustantimesbrunchLIKE, COMMENT, SHARE

@sweetest_sonam Finally read today’s Brunch! Awe-some cover story, guys. Keep up the good work!

@TheShivaniRawat Oh man! What a cover story! Hilari-ous read. Superbly superb!

@Ajaythetwit Thanks for inviting Rashmi Bansal to let usknow the secrets of success so simply.

@Dxdevilx I Love Brunch. And the new logo is so cool.

@mi_rashmi Brunch completes my Sunday.

TWEET YOUR HEART OUTtwitter.com/HTBrunch

Cover StoryFrom politics to Bollywood, here are the movers and shakers of social media

10

WellnessLast of our series on celebswho’ve beaten health disorders:New York chef Vikas Khanna

20

VarietyPets today are akin to their owners’ children

22

indulge14

16

18

19

Have you seen our Brunch Quarterly photoshoot with Vidya Balan yet? Log on now!

The lucky winnergets a SHOPPINGvoucher worth

R3,000!!

Split-Screen on the field

Mujra through the ages

The Brunch Blogs

Boy, do we love quizzing! That’swhy we can’t wait for it to be 2 pm everyday and test yourwits! And this week we’d like to challenge your knowledge onTechnology. The utterly cool,mind-bending questions gobeyond what the averagesearch engine can easily find.So, grab your gadgets and theirmanuals already! One LUCKY winner from theIndian Mythology week will be announced on Twittertomorrow!

The HT BrunchTotally Twisted, Ultra-Difficult WeeklyTwitter Quiz! Cycle 4: Technology

Not really. True glory on the field has not quiteinspired Hindi cinema enough. Read award-winning writer/filmmaker GautamChintamani’s latest post on ‘Sports in Hindi cinema.’ Read Split-Screen every Friday online!

There’s something aboutmujras that set them apartfrom regular Bollywood numbers. While Rekha,Meena Kumari and Madhuri

Dixit are the established mujra queens, AishwaryaRai Bachchan, Kareena Kapoor and MalaikaArora Khan redefined the genre. Log on to look atshots of iconic mujra songs over the years.

Write to brunchletters@hindustantimes.com

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

EDITORIAL: Poonam Saxena (Editor), Tavishi Paitandy Rastogi, Mignonne Dsouza,Veenu Singh, Parul Khanna Tewari, Yashica Dutt, Pranav Dixit,

Amrah Ashraf, Saudamini Jain

DESIGN: Ashutosh Sapru (National Editor Design), Swati Chakrabarti, Rakesh Kumar,Ashish Singh, Saket Misra, Suhas Kale, Shailendra Mirgal, Monica Gupta

Well done!YOUR COVER story (Sari, Sindoor & Glycerineawards, March 4) made for an entertaining read. Youranalysis was spot-on when it came to the charactersin the soaps. Currently, TV channels hand outawards to actors from shows running on their ownchannels, but there is nothing as impartial and complete as the analysis by Brunch. In fact, I thinkBrunch is now ready to host and judge the ‘IndianGrammies’!

– CHITRA , via email

InspiredVEENU SINGH’S article about Raageshwari (Problems Are Like Stepping Stones, March 4) mademe feel like a winner too. I was diagnosed with Bell’sPalsy in 2009. By surfing the internet, I learnt that thesinger too has suffered from facial nerve paralysis. Isecond Raageshwari’s thought that “problems are likestepping stones” and feel like a winner out of a badbout of this unusual disease.

– VARSHA BHAGNANI, via email

Cover: MALAY KARMAKAR

new!

This week, read Of Caking Up And No Cakes by VeenuSingh. A glowing mix of wellness and beauty.

BRUNCH ON THE WEBhindustantimes.com/brunch

Gear up, for every weekthe best letter will get aSHOPPING voucher worth

R2,500!!

inbox

LETTEROF THEWEEK!

Laughter award! WHEN I first saw the cover story (Sari, Sindoor &Glycerine awards, March 4), I was disappointedwith the subject. I am sick of awards being handed out as toffees these days! But yourawards left me laughing. Especially the PleaseBreak Up award. “Their chemistry is like shampooand toothbrush!” Great job, Brunch team! Youmade my Sunday!

— SUMISHA, via emailSumisha wins a shopping voucher worth `2,500! Congrats

RUDE FOODIndians are finally recognisingquality dim sum

TECHILICIOUSHot new smartphones from theMobile World Congress 2012

SPECTATORIt takes the blink of an eye for usto lose interest online and in life

DOWNLOAD CENTRALFrank Zappa’s Philly ‘76, released in 2009 is differentfrom his other albums

MARCH 11, 2012

THIS WHOLE Scary Cat Ladyreference is very un-Indian. InIndia, the worry is neverabout not getting married. We

attach such a freakish importance tomarital status that our young peopleusually have to put up a fight to staysingle just a little bit longer. So thisidea that there are ageing spinsterstucked away in every other apart-ment complex – knitting and talkingto cats, too afraid to step out of thehouse because children would throwlittle stones at them – is totally for-eign to us.

I mean, if you’re a thirty-plus sin-gle woman in India who is still wait-ing for The One – you should bemore afraid of turning into ScaryLandlady. You know? That fat,angry married woman with a moustache who tells you things like“no bringing baais (boys for theuninitiated) into the house,wokay?”, “no drinking alcohol, play-ing loud English songs and all thatdirty business” and my favourite“cook only vegetarian food” (so ran-dom!) before renting out her apart-ment to you. The reason I say this is

because The Scary Landlady unlikethe Cat Lady, is married and stillfrustrated – probably because shesettled for some man who was avail-able but not right for her becauseshe was too afraid of being aloneand didn’t have age on her side. Andnow she deals with her frustrationby growing a moustache and tortur-ing young single women becauseshe secretly wants their life.

That’s why it’s kind of amazing(and scary) that I’m still looking forThe One though I have all the oddsstacked up against me – I’m thirtyand I’m a single parent and there isaforementioned Landlady situationthat keeps popping up in my headevery time my eyes wander off aftera Mister Why-not.

But see, when you’ve crossedthirty, you have to make your peacewith the fact that your days of wait-ing for Mister Right are long gone.They are taken by twenty-some-things and that’s that. But the prob-lem is, they’re even fresh out ofMister Maybes – he’s not perfect,but you can live with that. Except,now it looks like he can do betterthan you. Who’d have thought.

So that’s how you end up withMister Why-not. You know? He’s

kind of cute from a certain angle,kind of funny after a few drinks,kind of smart if you can talk aboutWorld War II and bullets for therest of your life? He’s a bit of anacquired taste but hey, you’re thirtyplus and gravity is catching up withyou. Compromise is the way to go.On the flip side, you could settle forthis guy and realise that he boresthe hell out of you, kills your fireand makes you complacent aboutfacial hair. Eeps.

This is still better than theoptions available for a thirty-yearold single parent like me. You see, inIndia, if you’re divorced, you’re likea second-hand phone. No, make thatsecond-hand Nokia phone. Peoplethink twice about investing in youand the chances of finding a singleguy – even if he’s a Mister Why-not– are pretty darn slim. In fact, youhave well-meaning aunties oftentelling you things like “if you lookreally hard you might find a gooddivorced man willing to marry you.”

Oh.It’s like I’m at the bottom of the

single-and-looking food chain andmy perennial fear is that very sooneven the Mister Why-nots will be indemand and I’ll be stuck with aMister How-come. He gets his namefrom the first reaction you get frompeople upon introducing him asyour beau – ‘Umm, he seems nice,just you know, not your type. So,umm, how come?’

What do you tell them? These arepeople who know you and know he’snot your type. And you knowthey’re only buffering it with the ‘heseems nice’ remark – because thetruth is, Mister How-come is justMister Wrong without the alpha-maleness. This is even worse thanwhat The Landlady got!

At least when you were withMister Wrong, people pitied you in avery he’s-going-to-break-her-heartkind of way. Now, they’re going tolook at you like the poor girl whosettled because she couldn’t do anybetter. Horrors.

I did not see this coming and I’mtotally unprepared for this future.My idea of the future alwaysinvolved The One. But what if I’mstuck with Mister How-come andend up unhappy and bitter?

I don’t even have an apartmentto let out.

Judy Balan is the best-selling author ofTwo Fates – The Story Of My Divorce

MARCH 11, 2012

6 THE WAY WE ARE

In India, if you’redivorced, peoplethink twice aboutinvesting in you. The chances of

finding a single guy– even if he's a

Mister Why-not –are pretty darn slim

Illustration: MALAY KARMAKAR

T h e P r o b l e m w i t h S i n g l e Pa r e n t i n g – A t h r e e - p a r t s e r i e s

Turning IntoScary LandladyAre you a thirty-plus single woman who is still waiting for The One?by Judy Balan

PART 1

hindustantimes.com/brunch

IF DECADES of rom-com watch-ing and cable TV have taught usanything, then it’s this: that wear-ing a tuxedo is a pretty big deal.

Why else would the loveable, not-so-loaded male lead run around tryingto rent (it’s supposed to be expen-sive, duh!) that perfect tux, whichwould make his lady love and soon-to-be-someone-else’s bride changeher mind at the altar?

But haven’t you often wonderedwhat the eff is the big deal? A tux isafter all a suit with a waistcoat anda bow tie, so why should it be sospecial? As Hollywood stars arebranded ‘bold’, ‘vulgar’, ‘waitingstaff’ and ‘quirky’by the style police,while wearing the same black suit-trouser-shirt combination on thered carpet, one wonders whetherIndian men would ever considergoing through this ordeal. And ifthey do, then where would theywear it?

HOT OFF THE SHELVESApparently, everywhere. From aboozy night of cocktails to a pre-wedding ceremony, a lot of men arenot only attending ‘black-tie’ eventsbut are also keen to dress the part.

Manoj Mehraa, director of SBJHouse of Luxury, says that a tuxedohas become a requisite buy for at

least one of the marriage cere-monies for the Indian groom. “Menthese days are only too happy tohave more choice than sherwanis,achkans and suits. Not only does atux look distinct, but when donewell, it can be a really good look.”

“Just as women are experiment-ing with gowns, men are inchingtheir way into the Western formalsetting. They travel, study abroad,attend events and dinners and knowthat they need to fit in,” says aspokesperson from Paul Smith.

Contrary to what is assumedabout the normal gent’s interest infashion, tuxedos are flying off theshelves. Says Shalini Nayar,spokesperson of lifestyle brandGiovani: “Tuxedos are the mostsought after among our entireselection for men and are almostalways the first item to sell out.”And she just might be right asdesigner Narendra Kumar basedhis entire Winter-Festive 2011Collection showcased at LakmeFashion Week on tuxedos andFrank Sinatra’s golden hit Fly Me tothe Moon. “That was one of mymost popular collections till date.Everyone today wants to wear atuxedo, but not everyone knowshow to. So it’s still in a phase of dis-covery,” says Kumar.

PULL IT OFFAnd before you go exploringon your own, here’s our rule:Keep it classic. Go black anddon’t go back, unless it’s a deepmidnight blue or in rare cases,white. Rin Jajo, fashiondirector for Man’sWorld, offers moreadvice. “A tuxedo is aversion of the suitmeant for formal andblack-tie events and

is dictated by stringent specifica-tions. In particular, the features ofthe lapels (only a peak lapel orshawl lapel) and trousers (usuallywith a band along the seam in a fab-ric matching the lapel on the jacketand never with an upturned cuff).And one can never go wrong withblack, single breasted, in a blendedwool fabric, with a peak lapel in silkor satin and trousers in a matchingfabric.”

In addition, Esquire magazineapproved blog The Black Tie Guide,writes, “Jackets can be single ordouble-breasted. One button is tra-ditional for single-breasted modelsbut two buttons are becomingacceptable.” And it doesn’t skirtaround the waistcoat issue. “Formalwaistcoats are meant to cover as lit-tle of the shirt front as possible, sothey should barely extend beyondthe jacket’s lapels. Not only doesthis expose the maximum amount ofdecorated shirt bosom but it alsopreserves the physique-enhancingdeep V created by the contrast ofwhite shirt against the black jacket.”

And we agree. There is nothingmore unsightly than an overdonesatin waistcoat, nor is it accept-able to allow your shirt to peep

through under the jacket. But not everything except

your collar needs to be stiff.The lady from Paul Smithsuggests that you break the

monotony with a polka dottedbow-tie in mono-

chrome or a pat-terned pocketsquare. Andjunk the cum-merbund for afitted waist-coat.Experimentwith fabricslike velvet orjacquard orgo crazywith plaintrousers,instead ofseamed ones.But whateveryou do, don’ttry too hard.

It’s only too easyto end up like AnilKapoor at theBaftas. Or as TheBlack Tie Guidecalled him: TheIndian Pee-WeeHerman!

yashica.dutt@hindustantimes.com

MARCH 11, 2012

8 ST Y L E F I L E

IF YOU DON’T KNOWWHO PEE-WEE HERMAN IS, DON’TFRET, EVEN WE HAD TO LOOK IT UP!Pee-Wee Herman is a comic fictional character created and por-trayed by American comedian PaulReubens. He is best known for histwo television series and film series during the 1980s. The childlikePee-Wee Herman character developed as a stage act that quicklyled to an HBO special in 1981.

You’re not the only one whohad that thought. Presenting

the ultimate male fantasy:looking good in a tuxedo

by Yashica Dutt

What TheTux Is It?

Avoid ties: There is a reason the code is bow-tie, so stick to it.Don’t go for a notch lapel: (The kind that’s there on a business suit).It’s either peak or shawl.Don’t experiment with colour: A matching cummerbund (thin bloodred) with a bright bow-tie is truly the worst of the ’80s.Keep your shirt white: Whatever colour you choose, it’s that shadewhich will get you to sartorial heights.Balance your weight with your lapels: Thin lapels on a big mandon’t even sound correct, let alone look correct.

HOW NOT TO LOOK LIKE A WAITER

A LITTLE NIP AND TUCKGeorge Clooney’s Oscar look wasslammed by the style police

RED CARPET SAFEBrad Pitt in a classic black

and white combo at the Oscars

Source: WIKIPEDIA

DISSED AT THE BAFTASAnil Kapoor turns into theIndian Pee-Wee Herman

Thisworked

Phot

os: W

IREI

MAG

E

Too-tightjacket

twitter.com/HTBrunch

But thisreally didn’t

10 COVER STORY

MARCH 11, 2012

From politics toBollywood, hereare the moversand shakers ofthis new, socialera where yourcelebrity mattersless than your wit(and no rules apply)by Mahesh Murthy

The Other VoicesL

ONG, LONG ago in a year far,far away, all of India stoppedeverything it was doing on aSunday morning and watched

a Ramanand Sagar TV serial onDoordarshan with extremely badspecial effects. And then listened toLotika Ratnam, Komal GB Singhand Salma Sultan for relief. Thiswas the sonic blast-off for our golden age of television.

Satellite TV then brought a second mother-in-law into each ofour homes, with a level of actingthat could well have counterpointedMr Sagar’s pedestrian computergraphics. All of this was piped intoour homes via cables that localmafiosi regularly fought and killedeach other over – and subsequently,through little 18-inch dishes thatsucked signals out of the skies. Wealso moved on to staring at BarkhaDutt, Arnab Goswami and the occa-sional Prannoy Roy on our small

screens.But the golden age of television,

along with its attendant hero-jour-nalists, is fast fading away.

The number of Internet users inIndia – estimated at around 140 mil-lion today – exceeds the number ofTV sets in our homes. Facebook,with its 44 million Indian membersreaches more of us than any singleTV channel, Doordarshan included.While YouTube, with over 31 millionIndian viewers a month, is far andaway our largest English televisionchannel. Meanwhile Twitter andGoogle Plus each get to about 14million of us in a month – a numberthat is twice the circulation ofIndia’s largest newspaper.

This eclipse of what we now calltraditional media has been as cer-tain as it has been sudden.

And what is amazing is that noneof these “new” media vehicles havea single journalist working for them.

It’s all social, it’s all viral – and thenew age has brought with it a gener-ation of citizen journalists who aremostly armed with nothing muchmore than a Net connection and asupply of wit and wisdom – and whohave built substantial readershipsamong their countrymen.

So who are our Clark Kents forthis social media age?

AGE OF CITIZEN JOURNALISMFew of you may have heard of RSrivats. This IIT and IIM graduateruns a tiny firm in Bangalore thatbuilds desktop and mobile apps formarketers. But he’s far betterknown to his 32,000+ fans onTwitter by his handle@RameshSrivats where he dissects

POLITICS, POLITICS ALL THE WAY

■ SSHHAASSHHII TTHHAARROOOORRThe member of parliament from Thiru-vananthapuram (right) is not just farahead in the Indian-politicians-who-

get-social sweepstakes – but also thecurrent numero uno when it comes tosocial media influence of any sortacross India. BBlloogg//SSiittee:: http://tharoor.inTTwwiitttteerr:: @shashitharoor PPIIII ssccoorree:: 80.6; RReeaaddeerrss:: 12.6 lakh■ KKIIRRAANN BBEEDDIIAbout as far as you can get from TheTharoor Syndrome is the lady who callsherself Crane Bedi (left), and is playingthe role of self-appointed ombudsmanof India along with her colleagues inthe Anna Hazare movement. BBlloogg//SSiittee:: http://kiran-bedi.blogspot.inTTwwiitttteerr:: @TheKiranBedi PPIIII ssccoorree:: 76.3; RReeaaddeerrss:: 3.7 lakh

■ SSUUBBRRAAMMAANNIIAAMM SSWWAAMMYYThe gadfly has risen, and how. His re-cent airing of the 2G scam has broughthim significant social currency, andhe's getting bigger all the time. BBlloogg//SSiittee:: http://swamy39.blogspot.inTTwwiitttteerr:: @swamy39 PPIIII ssccoorree:: 72; RReeaaddeerrss:: 50,000

■ NNAARREENNDDRRAA MMOODDIIOne surely expected him to dobetter than his south Indiancounterpart. But the CM ofGujarat rolls onward, relentless. BBlloogg//SSiittee:: http://narendramodi.comTTwwiitttteerr:: @narendramodi PPIIII ssccoorree:: 71.5; RReeaaddeerrss:: 4.9 lakh

■ PPRRAAGGMMAATTIICC DDEESSIIThe man whose nameshall not be uttered continues his quiet, persuasive politicalactivism. Writing un-der a pseudonym, hestill manages to swaythe many with his finely-argued points. BBlloogg//SSiittee:: http://pragmat-ic.nationalinterest.inTTwwiitttteerr:: @pragmatic_d PPIIII ssccoorree:: 63.9; RReeaaddeerrss:: 14,000

IT SURPRISED us – but four of thetop six social media superstars were directly involved in politics and theother two are typically seen as political figures by others aroundthem. Our list of top Indian political figures in the blogosphere:

KKiirraann BBeeddii

SShhaasshhii TThhaarroooorr

facebook.com/hindustantimesbrunch

11COVER STORY

MARCH 11, 2012

FROM THE sublime to the ridiculous,though we’re not sure which is which,we’ll head to our favourite passion, Bollywood.

Here, like the new hits of today, aresurprises galore. Most of the reigningroyalty have actually stopped blogging,and moved on to just tweeting. Onesupposes this suits their time, or lackthereof, as well as the content of theirupdates – it’s better to say “Hi, I’m go-ing to the gym” in 140 characters than

in 140 words – and it suits the IQ ofsome stars. In other words, there’s farless material where Shahid Kapoor willmangle the spellings.

If you’re wondering if 21st centurysocial maven Gul Panag is going to beon this list, she’s actually graduatedelsewhere, as you’ll see later. That said,

there are still the entertainers whoblog, and those who blog about

entertainment. Our top five hereare:

■ SSHHRREEYYAA GGHHOOSSHHAALLThe songbird (right) still updates hersite, but it’s obvious she doesn’t caremuch for it, given its spectacularlyugly design and AdSense ads strewnabout. Go over to see videos of herperform obscure songs at even moreobscure live shows.BBlloogg//SSiittee:: http://Singer-

ShreyaGhoshal.com TTwwiitttteerr:: @ShreyaGhoshal PPIIII ssccoorree:: 65.6; RReeaaddeerrss:: 7.9 lakh■ TTAARRAANN AADDAARRSSHHGoing by current gossip, the recentpassing of a film critic made it harderfor film producers as it leaves just oneperson who gives their movies thestar-ratings they like – no matter howcrappy the movie. This is that person.BBlloogg//SSiittee::http://bollywoodhungama.comTTwwiitttteerr:: @Taran_Adarsh PPIIII ssccoorree:: 62.7; RReeaaddeerrss:: 1.3 lakh

■ SSHHEEKKHHAARR KKAAPPUURRThe man (left) who has been threaten-ing to make a movie for well over adecade keeps somewhat better timeonline with his regularly updated blogon his thoughts, his movies, histhoughts and, well, his thoughts.BBlloogg//SSiittee:: http://ShekharKapur.com TTwwiitttteerr:: @ShekharKapur PPIIII ssccoorree:: 61.8; RReeaaddeerrss:: 1.6 lakh

■ CCHHIINNMMAAYYIIChinmayi who, you’ll ask, and Chin-mayi Sripada would be the equallypuzzling answer. This babe from southof the Vindhyas is less known for herplayback singing and more for hermeticulously updated online diary ofevery single thought she’s ever had.BBlloogg//SSiittee::http://ChinmayiSripada.com

TTwwiitttteerr:: @Chinmayi PPIIII ssccoorree:: 59; RReeaaddeerrss:: 58,000

■ RRAAJJAANN RRAADDHHAAMMAANNAALLAANNThe wonders of the blogworld throwup interesting cases now and then,and this certainly is one. RajanLeaks,as the gent calls himself says he’sproud to “piss off” the entire Tamilfilm industry. He does so apparentlyby disclosing stories and secrets offilms under production – and he doesso in Tamil – in itself a rarity amongbloggers.BBlloogg//SSiittee:: http://RajanLeaks.com TTwwiitttteerr:: @RajanLeaks PPIIII ssccoorree:: 58.3; RReeaaddeerrss:: 3,500

the day’s news in 140 side-splittingcharacters.

How about Tinu Cherian? Thisjovial gent helps edit Wikipediaentries – but has over 68,000 peoplefollowing his every tweet via his@TinuCherian handle on the micro-blogging service.

Stars like Amitabh Bachchan andPriyanka Chopra have been quick torecognise where their audience isheaded, and have moved with thetrend, each now boasting of over 2million followers and readers online.Once upon a time, Shahrukh Khanneeded Filmfare’s 30,000 readers.Today, Filmfare needs @iamSRK’s1.8 million readers.

SO WHO ARE THE STARS? We set out to identify the movers andshakers of this new era. There arelists and lists of Indian bloggers. Butwe didn’t just want the long-formwriters – we wanted those with sig-nificant day-to-day readership andinfluence on what Indians do.

To find out, we turned to thePinstorm India Influencer list whichmeasures influence of about 5,000Indians every single day using glob-al metrics like Klout and PeerIndex– which in turn measure a person’sactivity and reach across Blogs,Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter andmore. (Time for a disclosure: theauthor of this piece helped createthe methodology – and the list, ifyou’d like to see it, is atPinstorm.com/ii)

We used the list as a base andthen catalogued the 100 top influ-encers who were adept bloggers,and grouped them by what theytypically talked about. Making surethat they were still blogging though– they needed to have made a postin the last three months.

Here’s what we found.

WHERE IS ALL THIS GOING?As television channels lose viewer-ship and as print magazines contin-ue to bleed readership, we are see-ing a rise of a new breed of individu-als who have more influence andreach than corporations and theirmedia do.

If Gul Panag reaches almost 3lakh people every day through herblogs and updates, and these are

upwardly mobile, urban young menand women that advertisers dreamto reach out to. At that point shestops being just a pretty face in themedia – and instead becomes mediaherself, considering she can directlyreach about 20 times the number ofpeople that most glossy luxury-themed print magazines do in Indiatoday.

And you don’t need to start as acelebrity on the ground to be oneonline. People like AR Karthick,

Tinu Cherian, Ramesh Srivats,Nitin Pai and even yours truly havemade it to the top 100 social influ-encers list in India with little in theway of any prior fame or “familyconnections.”

Remark-worthiness is the newcurrency. If this is true, how richcan you be?

(Mahesh Murthy is a marketer and investor withPinstorm and Seedfund. He tweets as

@maheshmurthy. The views expressed by the author are personal)

What is amazing is that none ofthese “new”

media vehicleshave a single

journalist workingfor them. It’s all

social, it’s all viral

THE BADSHAHS OF ENTERTAINMENT

SShheekkhhaarr KKaappuurr

SShhrreeyyaa GGhhoosshhaall

MARCH 11, 2012

“I hear YouTube, Twitter and Facebook are merging to form a super Social Media site – YouTwitFace” – Conan O’Brien on The Tonight Show

12 COVER STORY

BBUUSSIINNEESSSS AANNDD MMAARRKKEETTIINNGG

■ AALLOOKK KKEEJJRRIIWWAALLBBlloogg//SSiittee:: http://RodinHood.com TTwwiitttteerr:: @RodinHoodPPIIII ssccoorree:: 59.6; RReeaaddeerrss:: 2,500■ KKAARRTTHHIIKK SSRRIINNIIVVAASSAANNBBlloogg//SSiittee:: http://itwofs/beastoftraalTTwwiitttteerr:: @BeastOfTraalPPIIII ssccoorree:: 58.8; RReeaaddeerrss:: 7,000■ YYOOGGEESSHH MM..AA..BBlloogg//SSiittee:: http://Yogeshma.co.inTTwwiitttteerr:: @GlocalSourcesPPIIII ssccoorree:: 58.8; RReeaaddeerrss:: 800

TTEECCHHNNOOLLOOGGYY

■ RRAAJJUU PPPPBBlloogg//SSiittee:: http://TechPP.comTTwwiitttteerr:: @RajuPPPPIIII ssccoorree:: 57.8; RReeaaddeerrss:: 6,500■ MMAAHHEENNDDRRAA PPAALLSSUULLEEBBlloogg//SSiittee:: http://scepticgeek.comTTwwiitttteerr:: @ScepticGeekPPIIII ssccoorree:: 56; RReeaaddeerrss:: 6,500■ AATTUULL CCHHIITTNNIISSBBlloogg//SSiittee:: http://AtulChitnis.netTTwwiitttteerr:: @AtulChitnisPPIIII ssccoorree:: 55.6; RReeaaddeerrss:: 6,500

OTHER LISTSSO WHERE is the traditional media world through all ofthis? Not everybody, a la Murdoch, is wringing their handswondering how to compete with Google and Facebook.Many, at least in their personal capacities, have dived intodigital waters, and are doing pretty well actually. The queen

of the scene, in some ways, is Barkha Dutt. But whileBarkha is as loud-mouthed on Twitter as she is on TV, shehas a blog that strangely is closed to the public and openonly to the chosen few. That disqualifies her from this list.But her counterparts do well.

■ RRAAJJDDEEEEPP SSAARRDDEESSAAIIMr Suave (below) stays relatively outof trouble compared to his compatriotMs Dutt on the rival channel. But hedoes blog on the company’s website,and expresses himself clearly. A relief,if seen in contrast to the super-loud-

mouth Arnab Goswami.

BBlloogg//SSiittee::http://ibnlive.in.

com/blogsTTwwiitttteerr:: @Sarde-saiRajdeep PPIIII ssccoorree:: 72.5;

RReeaaddeerrss:: 4 lakh

■ SSAAGGAARRIIKKAA GGHHOOSSEEIn perhaps the only showing of itskind for a couple in this list, Mr Sarde-sai’s better half (right) expresses hersomewhat-less respected views onthe company blog too – and continuesto infuriate people through her statusupdates the rest of the time. Ofcourse it remains to be seen how theduo fare after the Mukesh Ambanitakeover. BBlloogg//SSiittee:: http://ibnlive.in.com/blogsTTwwiitttteerr:: @SagarikaGhose PPIIII ssccoorree:: 58; RReeaaddeerrss:: 65,000■ SSMMIITTAA PPRRAAKKAASSHHThis editor of Asian News Internation-al has muscled her way into the onlinebloggerati elite via her own site andtens of thousands of updates over thelast few years. BBlloogg//SSiittee:: http://www.Smi-taPrakash.comTTwwiitttteerr:: @SmitaPrakash PPIIII ssccoorree:: 55.5; RReeaaddeerrss:: 21,000

■ SSHHAAIILLII CCHHOOPPRRAAWhile one can imagine her colleague

Arnab’s blog – if it existed – wouldhave all text in screaming red, bold72-point letters repeating themselvesad nauseum while not making muchsense, Shaili does better.BBlloogg//SSiittee:: http://blog.economic-times.indiatimes.com/businessbirdieTTwwiitttteerr:: @ShailiChopra PPIIII ssccoorree:: 55.3; RReeaaddeerrss:: 3,000

■ NNIIKKHHIILL WWAAGGLLEEThe lone representative from non-English media on this list, the edi-tor of IBN-Lokmat makes his markas an aggressive persuader onlinetoo.BBlloogg//SSiittee:: http://ibnlokmat.tvTTwwiitttteerr:: @WagleNikhil PPIIII ssccoorree:: 54.3; RReeaaddeerrss:: 15,000

OUR MAIN drivers, as even a wet-behind-the-ears MBA-turned-analyst will tell you,are Bollywood and cricket. And wedo have some shining examples ofbloggers from our sports fields.But, then again, not the usualones. Sachin, as one would ex-pect of God, does not have timeto blog. But, strangely, neitherdoes Harsha Bhogle. Here are some who do:

■ SSAANNJJAAYY MMAANNJJRREEKKAARRYes, the man who managed tomake his way from the 22-yard strip to the commenta-tor box by making a littlemore sense than Ravi Shastriand using fewer clichés – whilealso, admittedly missing out on sev-eral equine-looking women alongthe way – writes. BBlloogg//SSiittee:: http://ESPNcricinfo.comTTwwiitttteerr:: @SanjayManjrekar PPIIII ssccoorree:: 66.5; RReeaaddeerrss:: 59,000

■ KKAARRTTIIKK MMUURRAALLIIOr is it Murali Kartik (right)? The confusion overwhat his name actually is aside, this all-rounder

extends his talents to be genuinely friendlyon Facebook and other social networks. Willit help him get back into the Indian team?You’ll have to get N Srinivasan on there first,we guess. BBlloogg//SSiittee:: http://facebook.com/muralikartikTTwwiitttteerr:: @KartikMurali PPIIII ssccoorree:: 60.2; RReeaaddeerrss:: 84,000

■ AAAAKKAASSHH CCHHOOPPRRAAWhere do ex-opening batsmen go after they retire? Some become selectors, like Srikkanth.And some writers, like the man who terms

himself CricketAakash. Mr Chopra does wellwith on-the-front-foot writing, and his fans

agree. BBlloogg//SSiittee:: http://cricketnext.in.com

TTwwiitttteerr:: @CricketAakash PPIIII ssccoorree:: 59.8 ; RReeaaddeerrss:: 73,000

■ VVEENNKKAATT AANNAANNTTHHThe enfant terrible of Indian cricket

writing goes fromstrength to strength –and he’s not yet 25. Venkatwrites for Yahoo Cricket –and is a bit of a phenome-non online, doing, by onecalculation, a sustainedaverage of over 100 up-dates a day on social media BBlloogg//SSiittee:: http://cricket.yahoo.com/blogs TTwwiitttteerr:: @VenkatAnanth PPIIII ssccoorree:: 59; RReeaaddeerrss:: 9,500

■ KKAARRUUNN CCHHAANNDDHHOOKKA welcome break from our cricket madness isin the form of one of our racing wunderkinds.Karun Chandhok (left), or KC, as he likes callinghimself, takes his sport seriously, but doesn’tluckily take himself too seriously. Given our recent showing on the cricket fields, it’s perhaps time for us to follow someone otherthan just cricketers. BBlloogg//SSiittee:: http://KarunChandhok.com TTwwiitttteerr:: @KarunChandhok PPIIII ssccoorree:: 53.7; RReeaaddeerrss:: 76,000

SSaaggaarriikkaa GGhhoossee

BE A SPORT

MMuurraallii KKaarrttiikk

KKaarruunn CChhaannddhhookk

hindustantimes.com/brunch

OLD MEDIA HANDS

RRaajjddeeeepp SSaarrddeessaaii

WAY BACK in the early Eighties,when the Taj Group was planningits second hotel in New Delhi, itfaced the dilemma of what kind of

Oriental restaurant to open. The Taj already ranthe massively successful House Of Ming at the TajMahal. How could it open a second restaurant

without stealing business from its front-runner?Camellia Panjabi, the then Taj’s executive

director offered a solution. Suppose the hoteleschewed the Sichuan route and went in a

different direction? The Taj could open adim sum place. It would be a teahousethat would serve dumplings all day andguests could drop in whenever theyliked and eat as much as they wanted.

The Tea House Of The August Moon opened at theTaj Palace soon after the hotel was launched in 1982.The dim sum menu was interesting but it rapidlybecame clear that the restaurant was ahead of itstime. Delhi was only just getting used to real Chinesefood (The House Of Ming had opened in 1978) andnobody had the patience to develop a taste for dimsum. Though the restaurant continued to serve dimsum for some years it became – bit by bit – a House

Of Ming clone in terms of its menu, at least.Looking back, I think Camellia was being too ambi-

tious. In the early Eighties, it was rare to find a dim sumrestaurant outside of mainland China or the overseas

Chinese enclaves (Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore etc.) EvenNew York and London had yet to discover the joys of dim sum.

To expect Delhi’s Punjabis to forsake their Chicken Hong Kongand other House of Ming favourites for some delicate dumplingswas probably unreasonable.

On the other hand, were the Taj to attempt something likethat today, the idea may meet with more success. Suddenly, dimsum is a global craze. London’s Yauatcha opened its Bombaybranch a few months ago (see last week’s Rude Food) and therewill be more Yauatchas in other cities. The assembly-line dimsum chain Ping Pong is a big hit everywhere in the West. And

Taiwan’s Din Tai Fung (DTF) is expandingat a massive pace, opening branches all overthe world.

In India, Royal China owes some of itssuccess to the high quality of its dim sum.The Delhi branch does an enormously successful dim sum brunch on Sundays andmost people who go to the two BombayRoyal Chinas order the dim sum. In Delhi,one of the many attractions on the menu

at Set’z is the cheung fan, a sort of dim sum ricecrepe that is hard to find at most other restau-rants.

What accounts for the sudden popularity of dimsum, a kind of food that has been around for yearsbut has never been as highly lauded as it is today?

I may be stretching the point but my guess isthat the dim sum craze is not unlike the sushi phenomenon. Young people want simple foods thatcan be consumed on their own. Moreover, becausemost dim sum are steamed, they are also – likesushi – the healthy option for those who want tosteer clear of oil, grease or fried foods.

Indians always act as though dim sum are anunfamiliar food but the truth is that we have been eating them formany decades now. We just don’t call them dim sum – we prefer touse the term momo.

There is probably a book – or a TV programme at least – to bedone on the spread of momo in India. But whatever position youtake on the origins of the dish – is it Tibetan? Is it Nepali? etc –the reality is that in much of North and Eastern India, momoshave always been popular as a cheap and easy-to-make snackfood. I once wrote that the best way to eat well in the restaurantsof the North East was to stick to momos – to howls of outragefrom the citizens of the North East who believed that I was disparaging their local cuisines. (I wasn’t. It’s just that you don’tget their local cuisines in the restaurants of the region.)

My momo memories stretch back to the streets of Calcutta.My dim sum memories, however, are more recent. Of course, Ihave always known what dim sum are but somehow I never really saw the point of fat balls of dough stuffed with minced meatof indeterminate origin.

Then, over a decade ago, I went to Taiwan. No matter whatanyone may tell you, some of the best Chinese food in the worldin not to be found in Shanghai or Hong Kong – you’ll find it inTaipei, the capital of Taiwan. The Taiwanese are justly proud oftheir expertise with dim sum and my guide insisted on takingme to what he claimed was the best dim sum restaurant in theworld: “Very difficult to get a table! Japanese tourists book itmonths in advance.”

It was a not terribly fancy place called Din Tai Fung, which Ihad never heard of before and the star attraction was the soupdumpling. This was a small dim sum that looked no differentfrom anything else. But when you put it into your mouth and bitinto it, hot soup gushed forth.

My guide was clearly used to taking foreigners to DTF andwaited for my look of astonishment as the soup filled my mouth.Naturally, I asked him how they managed that. “They put in thesoup with a syringe,” he laughed. “No, actually, they freeze the

rude fo

od

Vir Sanghvi

DIM SUM’SDAY OUT

14 indulge

MARCH 11, 2012

SUCCESS MANTRAIn India, Royal China owes some of its success to thehigh quality of its dim sum. The Delhi branch (above)does an enormously successful dim sum brunch

Indians act as though dimsum are an unfamiliar

food but the truth is thatwe have been eating

them for many decades

LOCAL TASTESWe just don’t call them dimsum in India – we prefer touse the term momo

Photos: THINKSTOCK

The success of the RoyalChinas and Yauatchassuggests that Indians arefinally recognising qualitydim sum

15

MARCH 11, 2012

soup and then when they steam it, the soup melts.”Later, I was to discover that it was a little more complicated

than that. They turned the soup into a gelatinous substance thatliquefies while the dim sum are being steamed.

There is no unanimity over the credit for discovering the soupdim sum. The Taiwanese say they invented it. Other Chinese saythat the recipe has been around for years and that the Taiwanesedid no more than popularise it. Either way, it is hard for me to dispute that it was that one visit to DTF that opened my eyes tothe glories of dim sum. The DTF dim sum were light, the skin wastranslucent and the filling seemed to glow from deep inside.

Within a few years, the West began offering great dim sum. Ihad been to the vast dim sum restaurants of Chinatown in NewYork and London but though the dim sum kept coming on trolleys and in baskets, the quality was rarely memorable. Thatchanged with the opening of the original Hakkasan in Londonwhere the dim sum lunch was not just excellent, it was also goodvalue. Then, Alan Yau, who started Hakkasan, opened Yauatcha,a restaurant dedicated primarily to dim sum and the whole ofEngland fell in love with the concept.

In recent years, dim sum has gone mass market with the PingPong chain. I have never been overly impressed by the quality ofthe food but you can’t quibble with the chain’s global success. Asfar as I can tell, the idea is to make the dim sum at a central commissary and to then send them off to restaurants all over theworld. At each branch of Ping Pong, they take the refrigerated dimsum and steam it for each order. It might sound like airline foodbut it works. I guess we should think of it as the dim sum equivalent of conveyor belt sushi – it’s not the real thing but it isreal enough and cheap enough to appeal to a young mass market.

The problem with dim sum is that unless the chef is talented,the quality of the dumplings can bedire. DTF is now a global chain (some-thing I could hardly have dreamt ofwhen I went to the original restau-rant in Taiwan) and I am not surethat this is a good thing. I liked thebranch on Singapore’s Orchard Road

(there are now four DTF’s in Singapore) but the Bangkok branchwhich opened at Central World a few months ago has failed toproduce dumplings of great quality. I went for lunch last weekand was startled by how bad some of the fillings were and howthe translucent skins of the original DTF dumplings had becomethick balls of dough.

But if dim sum are done right then they can be amazingly lightand delicately delicious. If you’ve seen my Asian Diary episodeon rice (part of the TLC show from some years ago) then youwill have caught the footage of the chef at Tim Ho Wan in HongKong spreading rice batter on his griddle waiting for it to solidify, putting minced char siu on top and then slicing and rollingthe sheets of the now solidified rice paste into porcelain-like che-ung fan. We filmed at Tim Ho Wan a few weeks after the restau-rant had opened. A little later the Michelin guide found it and itis now the cheapest Michelin-starred restaurant in the world.

Because the making of fragile cheung fan and of delicate dimsum is a great art, which tests the ingenuity of a chef much morethan most other kinds of Chinese cooking, anyone who can produce great dim sum deserves a Michelin star, no matter howsimple the restaurant.

Sadly, it works in reverse too. All too often, the dim sum we getin India – at so-called dim sum lunches and even at specialtyrestaurants – is mediocre, dull and heavy. Worse still, many chefstake the easy way out and simply deep fry their dim sum knowing that this is certain to appeal to a certain kind of Indianpalate. (Can it be a coincidence that the deep-fried wonton is prob-ably the most ordered dim sum at Indian Chinese restaurants?)

But perhaps things are changing.The success of the Royal Chinas andYauatchas suggests that Indians arefinally recognising quality dim sum.With a bit of luck, this will spell theend of all those terrible dim sumlunches at five-star hotels where thedim sum skin has the texture of oldleather and the filling is made fromthe pulverised flesh of some animalwhose identity you would rather notknow about.

TASTE PACKETSThe dim sum at DTF (below) were light, the skinwas translucent and thefilling seemed to glow fromdeep inside

twitter.com/HTBrunch

TREND SETTERAlan Yau opened Yauatcha, a restaurant dedicated primarily to dim sum and thewhole of England fell in lovewith the concept

HOT SPOTThe assembly-line dim sumchain Ping Pong (left) is a bighit everywhere in the West

CHEAP AND BEST!Tim Ho Wan in Hong Kong is thecheapest Michelin-starred restaurantin the world Ph

oto:

CC/

CHIK

A W

ATAN

ABE

Photo: CC/KAKE PUGHDIFFERENTORDERIn Delhi, one of themany attrac-tions on themenu at Set’z(above) is thecheung fan(right)

THE WORLD of tech is a pretty strangeplace. While many other industries havetheir own exhibitions and showcaseevents, no one can compare to a tech

event. There’s a certain insanity, a deranged glintin everyone’s eyes, a wild and psychotic quest thateveryone seems to be on. Bloggers, product manufacturers, geeks, techies, journalists and TVcrews from across the world arrive with a hungerand demand for their minds to be blown. Almosteverything is analysed, dissected and torn apartwithin seconds of the product being unveiled andannounced. People stand in line for hours to feelthat new device in their hands only to derideit for not feeling exactly like they thought itshould. People who’ve never met before formdiscussion groups on the spot and argue about adevice or new service as it their life depended on it.Everybody is out on a hunt to find the unknown, the unan-nounced, the most secretive next big thing. Tech is a strangeplace and the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain, is theMecca of strangeness.

But this time Barcelona did a one up on techies. For the firsttime ever, strange sights and events played out even before yougot into MWC. First, a public transportation strike crippled theevent (threats and bargaining got some things working, but itwas never normal). Then slogan-shouting and banner-wieldingprotesters took over the Fira circle right outside MWC (the slo-gans and banners were poetic, if you like your poems with only

four-letter words).The protesters camewith different agendas. Some hatedmobiles as an indus-try, some hated com-panies who were job cutting and some justhated! Horse-mount-ed riot police did thejob of greeters atMWC and most of uswere shepherded inand out like we werein a war zone. And assoon as you gotinside, the Chineseinvasion took over.Yup, China had liter-

ally taken MWC hostage. The biggest banners,the largest posters, the most enormous displaysand halls, the huge guest and media areas, thePegasus horse made entirely of mobile phones,the holder for your event ID card, the bag to holdall your papers were all either ZTE or Huawei. Ifever the rest of the world mobile industry wasmade to look a bit minuscule, then MWC 2012 wasit!

MWC 2012 will also be remembered for theclear directions it gave for the industry for thenext five years. From companies that were bornagain (Sony minus Ericsson), to product maturity (quad cores, large screens, unibodydesigns), to the shock of the Nokia PureView witha 41 megapixel camera, to radical new innovations(a Porsche controlled by a BlackBerry PlayBookTablet to a three-in-one device, the Asus PadFone),this was the year we’ll all look back at and say,“This is where it all started all over again.”

ASUS PADFONEThis is the device that broke all the rules. A devicethat rethought the dynamics of all that we carry.

Think about it. Most ofus have a phone, a

tablet and a laptop.What if just

your phonec o u l d

power yourtablet and that

tablet could morphinto a laptop. The

Asus PadFone is a dumbtablet with just a screen and

has a slot at the back that youslide your phone into and the

phone powers it up as a tablet. Thenattach it to the keyboard dock and

you’ve got a laptop. This is pretty muchthe Swiss army knife of all phones.

SONY XPERIA S, U AND PFree a company from the shackles of a partnership and it suddenly grows wings like never before. At CES in Vegas, Sonyflaunted the Xperia S and at MWC it beat the pants off its owndevice and came up with the Xperia P and U. The Xperia S, Pand U truly look like a band of brothers. And good looks certainlyrun in the family! The Xperia P comes packed in an aluminiumunibody casing and a 4-inch display. It is the first handset to useSony’s latest White Magic technology that provides superior legibility even in bright sunlight. An 8 megapixel camera at theback, dual core 1 GHz processor and 16 GB in-built memory. And

Rajiv Makhni

MWC 2012:WHERE MOBILESWERE REBORN

16 indulge

MARCH 11, 2012

From quad-core processors to 41megapixel cameras, here’s a taste of the new smartphones coming our way

Samsung Note 10.1If you blew the worldto little bits with abig phone, then whynot take that ideaand put it in a Tablet.The Samsung GalaxyNote is now a 10-inchTablet and borrowsliberally from itssmaller brother. Ithas a 800x1280 pixelresolution matedwith a surprisinglyordinary 3 megapixelcamera at the back.It runs on Android4.0 OS, has a dualcore 1.4 ghz processor and all theother gee whiz features you need ona slate. The cool quotient goes up as itcomes with the SPen, basically a stylus on steroidswith amazing pres-sure sensitive magic.

techilicious

then the most stunning phone of MWC, the Xperia U with thetransparent band below the screen that you can’t help be hypnotised by. Customise it to the colour you want when you geta call. And when you are viewing any images in your phone gallery,the band changes to the most predominant colour in the photograph. Sony is finally on a roll.

NOKIA 610It was expected to happen. But not thisfast. A Windows phone at about tenthousand bucks. And the all new aggres-sive we-will-conquer-the-world- again.Nokia has packed quite a punch.Running on the same Windows Phone7.5 OS, it has almost all the featuresits big brothers have. While it runson a middling 800 MHz processor,it still works well. A 3.7-inch display,Nokia Drive, Nokia Maps, a 5megapixel camera and Zune com-plete the knockout punch. Take thatright on your face, all you Androideconomy phones!

LG OPTIMUS VUWhen you take on the might of the SamsungGalaxy Note, then you better have somestrong arsenal of weaponry in your pocket. And this one does. It’s big, it’s brightand it has a wow screen. The LG OptimusVu has a supremely big IPS display witha crisp 1024x768 pixel resolution. Thefunny part is that it has a 4:3 form factorwhich is very unusual. Apparently itopens Web pages perfectly and withoutneed for scrolling and also ebooks readperfectly. It may be wide but it’s also

very thin at 8.5 mm and also loaded to thebrim: 32 GB internal memory, 1 GB RAM and a microSD cardslot, an 8 megapixel camera that shoots videos at 1080p, 1.2GHzdual core processor and a jaw dropping 2080mAh battery. Wonderwhat Samsung will do now. Maybe a Galaxy Note 2?

HUAWEI ASCEND D1 QUADBeware all mere mortals. The almighty, the powerful, the AscendD1 Quad has arrived. It comes in a beautiful, super-slim packagetoo with very slick ergonomics. A 4.5-inch screen with 720x1280resolution. Plus the mighty phone has 1 GB RAM and 8 GB ROM,Android 4.0 and an 8 megapixel camera at the back. But the reason why it ismighty andpowerful? Wellit’s the fastestsmartphonein the worldand pulls itoff withH u a w e i ’sproprietaryprocessor, abeastly 1.2Ghz quadcore. Andthat is nota smallfeat to pulloff!

HTC ONE XThis was the phone that had even the competition salivating. TheHTC One X is a gigantic 4.7-inch super IPS LCD display with720x1280 pixel resolution. The superior Corning glass toughensit up to scratches while the 8 megapixel camera clicks brilliant-ly and as fast as five pictures a second. Powered by an NVIDIATegra 3 quad core 1.5 GHZ processor, this has serious horse-power. But it’s in the sound that it truly shines. With Beats Audiobuilt in, this has a punchy bass and sounds like no other phone.And then the thin unibody polycarbonate form factor is awesomeand holds beautifully in the hand.

NOKIA PUREVIEW 808The phone that rocked MWC andshot it to bits. 41 megapixel bits infact. Just when we thought thatthe cellphone megapixel war hascome to an end, Nokia blew up thecompetition with a camera ofsuper-human proportions. 41megapixels. Yes, you read that right!FORTY ONE! Even professional DSLRS wouldn’t beable to pull that off, yet here it is in a simple phone. The real devilis in the detail and this one has an amazing amount if it. Zoomin to a photo with the usual pinching or tapping gesture and keeppinching – you can zoom in to the smallest detail. And you canprint pictures even 9 metres wide. Running on Symbian Belle,it comes with a 4-inch AMOLED display. But that’s all boringstuff. The real story is the 41 megapixel camera.Yes, FORTY ONE!

LG OPTIMUS 3D MAX They started the whole idea ofa small screen with 3D butwithout the headache-inspiringglasses and now they’ve bet-tered it. A better screen, better viewing angle, far betterresolution and a picturethat really does look3D, raw and nakedto the eye. Even thecamera shoots pho-tos and videos in 3Dand completes theexperience.

Rajiv Makhni is managing editor,Technology, NDTV and the anchor of Gadget

Guru, Cell Guru and Newsnet 3. FollowRajiv on Twitter at twitter.com/RajivMakhni

MARCH 11, 2012

facebook.com/hindustantimesbrunch 17

IF YOU are as old as I am, you probablyremember a time when you actually had todial-up an Internet connection. Sometimes it

took two minutes; sometimes it took ten; andsometimes it didn’t work at all. When you finally connected, every site took ages to open up, andthen just as you were finally getting into it, theconnection would magically disappear. So thenyou had to dial-up again... and again.

I remember spending entire afternoons at mydesk, just waiting to first get through and thenfinish my research. Over time I got canny enoughto arm myself with a magazine to while away thetime spent waiting. Sometimes, just to mix it up,I would buff my nails; call a friend for a chat; eata sandwich; even do my stretching exercises.(Okay, I made up the last one; but the rest of it istrue.)

In case you’re wondering why I am blubberingon about the bad old days of Internet connectiv-ity, my nostalgia was triggered by a recent newsreport that said that people will visit a websiteless often if it is slower than its competitor by more than 250 mil-liseconds. What is 250 milliseconds in peoplespeak? Well, it translates as the blink of an eye.

So, if a website is slower than its rival by even a blink of aneye, we will abandon it in favour of the faster one. As Arvind Jain,the resident speed maestro at Google, says, “Subconsciously, youdon’t like to wait. Every second counts.” Or, more accurately,every nano-second. Harry Shum, speed specialist at Microsoft,agrees, “250 milliseconds, either slower or faster, is close to themagic number now for competitive advantage on the web.”

And no doubt with time, we will only get more demanding. Asrecently as 2009, a study by Forrester Research found that onlineshoppers wanted pages to load in two seconds or less. The momentyou hit the three second mark, a large percentage would simply

abandon the site and move on. Just three years earlier, however, a similar study had found that theaverage expectation for page load time was four seconds or less. So, with every year, our desire forspeed, well, speeds up even more.

But if you ask me, this is not simply about our impatience while surfing the Net. In a sense, this reportis a metaphor for our times. We want it all, and wewant it now. And by that I mean NOW, not 250 milliseconds later! Okay?

Ours is not a generation that sees any virtue indelayed gratification. And the generation after ours,which has been weaned on smartphones and grownup on iPads, is going to be even less patient. Soon the250 millisecond mark will be whittled down to 150 milliseconds, then 50 milliseconds – until a time comeswhen we will want the page to load intuitively evenbefore we have clicked on it.

We can already see the signs. Everyone is alwaysin a hurry. In a hurry to grow up; in a hurry to hit thefast lane; in a hurry to get rich; in a hurry to get into

shape; in a hurry to be famous; in a hurry to retire; in a hurryto... well, you get the drift.

And of course, everyone is in a hurry when on the Net. What,250 milliseconds too slow? Bam, you’re dead.

Sadly, this impatience has percolated into every area of ourlives. You see it in the professional sphere all the time. No onewants to stay in the same job for too long for fear of stagnating.They want to move on and up – and on yet again, even if the raiseoffered is a few thousand rupees. The idea of staying on and working for the same firm – like the company-men of an earliergeneration – is anathema to anyone under the age of 30.

Or let’s look closer home. Children, these days, seem to be ina tearing hurry to grow up. The teenage years appear to start at10 rather than 13; they are dating at 12 rather than 16; and theyseem to know more about sex at 15 than we did ten years later.

Personal gratification is another area where our expectationshave speeded up. Want to lose weight? Yes. But who has the timeor inclination to do the old-fashioned way: by eating less andworking out more. That would just mean losing a kilo a week,duh! That’s simply not fast enough.

So bring on the fad diets, the slim cures, the week-long fasts,the plant juice detox. Instead of taking a long-term view, look forthe quick fix. Check into a fat farm, a body boot camp, or a yogaretreat for a week or so. And if none of that works, well then alittle bit of liposuction never hurt anyone – and you’ll be homebefore lunch to snack on some fast food.

Ah food! Cooking is becoming a lost art because few peoplehave the patience to rustle up a home-made meal from scratch.And eating out in a restaurant has become like a race againsttime. I want my menu now. Bring the bread to the table already.What’s with the ten-minute delay between courses? Of course, Idon’t want the soufflé; it takes 25 minutes!

You do realise that I don’t have even 250 milliseconds to spare,don’t you?

seema_ht@rediffmail.com. Follow Seema on Twitter at twitter.com/seemagoswami

That’s howlong it takesfor us to loseinterest whilesurfing onthe Net – andincreasingly,in real life

SeemaGoswami

spectator

MARCH 11, 2012

18 indulge hindustantimes.com/brunch

Photo: THINKSTOCK

IN THE BLINKOF AN EYE

WHAT’S THE RUSH?Everyone is always in a hurry. In a hurry to grow up;in a hurry to hit the fast lane;in a hurry to get rich

THERE ARE two albums sitting on my desk next to the laptop that I’m typing on and I haven’t yet heard them.One of them is Bruce Springsteen’s new and, as I under-

stand, angry album, Wrecking Ball. Serendipitously, the albumlanded just as I was thinking of Springsteen. I like Springsteenalthough I’m not as huge a fan of the sincere, honest, working-classhero musician as are a couple of my colleagues. He is politicallyoutspoken and many of his albums are themed on major issues oftheir times – Wrecking Ball has been associated by critics with

the current financial crisis in the US. But I wasn’t thinking of Springsteen’s music whenthe CD arrived courtesy the folks at Sony Music. I had

just got the February 27 issue ofBloomberg Businessweek and the

cover had an image of Mitt Romneywith his back to the camera and one

of a hand holding the cover ofSpringsteen’s 1984 album, Born in the USA.

Only, the magazine’s headline said Scornedin the USA. A funny and clever cover. Andironic that Springsteen’s new album, which

arrived just then, was one that scathinglyindicts the suits on Wall Street.

I haven’t heard Wrecking Ballyet. Neither have I tried the other

surprise arrival in the mail, the new Cranberriesalbum, Roses, their first in ten years. I like DoloresO’Riordan’s Celtic lilt and, during the mid and late-nineties have had cassette tapes of No Need toArgue and To the Faithful Departed as permanentresidents in my car. Yet, I have not yet heard theCranberries new album.

I would have heard both theirs as well asSpringsteen’s new ones had I not chanced upon anearly 14-minute version of a Frank Zappa song,Advance Romance. Actually, I chanced upon a relatively recent release of a live concert by themaverick musician. Recorded way back in 1976,Philly ’76 was released by the Zappa Family Trustonly in 2009, some 16 years after Zappa died prematurely at 52. Frank Zappa was a genius – notonly was he an exceptionally talented electric guitarist but a composer of rock, jazz and classical music, a film-maker, producer and singer-songwriter. But more on all that in just a bit.

Philly ’76 is a bit different from Zappa’s otheralbums and he has several – in his lifetime hereleased more than 60 albums and after his deaththe family trust released nearly 30 (and yet, I remember going nuts trying to score Zappa albumsin the late seventies and the eighties in India; noneseemed to be available readily in those prehistoricanalog decades). Philly ’76 features Lady Bianca,the electric blues singer whose vocals are strikingly big and display influences of jazz, gospeland soul. I heard Advance Romance, a wryly funny

Zappa song about a charac-ter called Potato-head Bobby,sung by Lady Bianca whobriefly toured with Zappa’sband in 1976, and decidedthat I must get the album.The search was not easy. Youcan order the CD or vinylversions online, of course, butgetting hold of digital ver-sions turned out to be a chal-lenge.

Nearly all the tracks – there are 23 – from Philly ’76 are previously unreleased and even though the concert goes back 36years, the recording shows how much fun a Zappa concert usedto be. The spontaneity and unexpectedness of his shows is something showcased by Philly ’76. There are excellent solos – Zappa’s own as well as bandmate Ray White’s on guitar;and Eddie Jobson’s on the keyboards. But what stands out is theunusual touch that Lady Bianca adds to Zappa staples – songssuch as Dirty Love, Chrissy Puked Twice and the always-a-treat-to-hear, Dina-Moe Humm. If you’re a Zappa fan and don’t havethis album, get it.

And if you’ve never heard Zappa, well what can I say exceptfeel sorry for you. I could, however, direct youto Apostrophe (‘), Sheik Yerboutior Joe’s Garage– all great albums to start you off. You could alsoadd a live album to that list – 1978’s Live in New York.

Meanwhile, I’m going to give Wrecking Balland Roses a listen. At last.

To give feedback, stream or download the music mentioned inthis column, go to http://blogs.hindustantimes.com/

download-central, follow argus48 on Twitter

Two new albums by Springsteen and theCranberries can wait for a while – I’ve justchanced upon Frank Zappa’s Philly ’76

A MAN OF MANY TALENTSFrank Zappa was a genius – not only was he an exceptionally talented electric guitarist but a composer of rock, jazz and classical music, a filmmaker, producer and singer-songwriter

MORE ON THE WEBhindustantimes.com/brunch

If you’ve neverheard Zappa, well

what can I sayexcept feel sorryfor you. I could,

however, direct youto Apostrophe (’)

MARCH 11, 2012

BREAKING NEWSMany of BruceSpringsteen’s albumsare themed on majorissues of their times

MIX AND MATCHLady Bianca’s vocals arestrikingly big and displayinfluences of jazz, gospeland soul

TO BE FRANK...SanjoyNarayan

down

load c

entral

19twitter.com/HTBrunch indulge

WHEN HE hosted therecently concludedMasterChef India(season 2) in place of

Akshay Kumar, Vikas Khanna, theaward-winning Michelin-starredIndian chef and restaurateur fromNew York, instantly became a hitwith audiences. Quite apart fromhis culinary skills, it was his goodlooks, soft voice and killer smile thatswept viewers off their feet, makinghim a star among TV audiences,from Lucknow to Ludhiana.

But Khanna’s success did notcome without some hard battles.Born in 1971 in a small hospital inAmritsar, Khanna was born withmisaligned legs and feet (where theleg bones are not aligned properly atthe joint and can look as if they areturned sideways). “The very firstthing the doctor told mymother was that yourson is born withabsolutely ulta feet, andmy mother refused tobelieve him,” recalls anemotional Khanna.“Some 30-40 years ago,nobody would eventhink about discussingsuch issues. I’m reallyhappy to know that nowthey are being seen in adifferent light,” addsKhanna, who had tohave his legs operatedon when he was barelytwo weeks old.

Despite the operation, the doctorinformed Khanna’s mother that hewould not be able to walk properlyfor a few years and would have towear wooden shoes that would helpthe proper alignment of his legs.“Special wooden shoes wereordered for me from China and Ihad to wear them all the time,”reminisces Khanna. “I hated themas they made me look so ugly andeverybody laughed at me. Theywere also very heavy, so I would find

it difficult to walk comfortably, andthey would feel rather clumsy. Theonly good thing about them was thefact that I could easily burst crack-ers (the thin red phatakas) withthese shoes,” says Khanna on alighter note, though the crack in hisvoice gives away the pain and suffering he underwent at that time.

A GLEAM OF HOPEIn fact, it was this pain that pushedKhanna towards his current career.To avoid being teased, he wouldgravitate to the kitchen where hisBiji (grandmother) cooked tradition-al Indian dishes using homemadespices. “By the time I was seven, Ihad developed a certain obsessionfor food. Every day I would run tothe kitchen, pull up a stool andwatch Biji cook amazing Punjabi

dishes with some secretspices. I would ask herabout the spices, theflavours and how wegot the right mix andshe would explainthings in great detail,”explains Khanna.

“She realised that Iwas a loner at heart,the backbencher whowould rather watch hercook than go out andplay or even spend timestudying,” revealsKhanna, adding that ifhis grandmother hadn’t

encouraged him, hewould have definitely turned into arecluse. “At that point, I didn’trealise what was in store for me,”says Khanna with a sense of pride.

By the age of 15, Khanna’s legshad started getting their strengthback and the wooden shoes finallycame off. His mother then took himto the Company Bagh garden inAmritsar and asked him to startrunning. She told him that she wassure that one day he would fly. “‘TuAmritsar ka best cook banega’ iswhat she said with a twinkle in hereyes,” recalls Khanna. “I wasn’t sureabout what I was going to do at thattime, but my mother had a deter-mined look on her face and was confident about my success. My legsfelt absolutely weak after years ofbeing in those shoes, but I ran withall my might,” explains Khanna,adding that from that day, he runsevery single morning without fail.

Ask him whether he has managedto forget that pain and lonelinessand Khanna just smiles back. “Youknow, as long as you are in pain,

F i gh t i n g F i t Last of our series on celebs who’ve beaten health disorders

Vikas Khanna, chef

20 WELLNESS

MARCH 11, 2012

‘I had to wearheavy, uglywooden shoes’He could barely walk as a child. But then,New York chef Vikas Khanna learnt to runby Veenu Singh

Many times, babies are born with feetthat are turned inwards. This could beeither due to some problems with thejoints (it is usually rectified as theygrow up) or a condition known as‘club foot’ (when the baby is in thewomb, the position of the feet is suchthat the toes and feet may seem outof shape). Although a club foot can be cured justby wearing specially made shoes, incases with severe problems, an operation is suggested.

MISALIGNED FEET

Mygrandmotherrealised thatI was a loner

at heart,who would

rather watchher cookthan play

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that’s the only thing you can thinkof,” he explains. “But after you overcome that, you start gettingcomfortable with your body andhave a more normal relationshipwith people around you. I haven’tforgotten anything, but with God’sgrace, I have been able to do a lot inmy life now. And I feel that I owe itto everyone who has been prayingfor my well-being to keep myself fit,”says Khanna who is very carefulabout what he eats.

SUCCESS STORY Khanna’s interest in food soonturned into a passion and he triedhis hand at all kinds of Indian cook-ing under the guidance of his Biji.“By the time I turned 17, myultimate dream was to open a cholebhature ki dukaan,” says Khanna.To give shape to his dreams,Khanna started a banquet andcatering business – LawrenceGarden Banquets – in Amritsar tocater to the kitty party crowd.

Ask him what were his thoughtsat that time and Vikas says, “Forsomeone who had no idea aboutwhat he’d do in life, this was like anew beginning altogether. Suddenly,I felt like dreaming and I recalledmy mother’s words again and again.I think that’s what a firm belief insomething or someone does to you.”

In order to sharpen his culinaryskills, Vikas decided to join theWelcomgroup Graduate School of

Hotel Administration, Manipal.There he got the opportunity towork with well known chefs fromthe hospitality industry. His outlooktowards life changed and the shy,reticent, lonely boy was finally ableto make friends and enjoy life likeany normal youngster. “College lifewas an eye opener for me. I realisedthat cooking was everything for meand also that life is beautiful,” saysthe 40-year-old chef.

In December 2000, Khanna decid-ed to move to New York, where creating a perfect dhokla helpedhim bag the executive chef positionat Salaam Bombay Restaurant.That was the beginning of his success story. Today, he runsJunoon, a restaurant in New York.

But Khanna still believes in letting his work, his food do all thetalking for him.

veenus@hindustantimes.com

facebook.com/hindustantimesbrunch 21

REJUVENATION involves detoxifying the body toget rid of all accumulated toxins. Once the

body is detoxified, the next part involves rejuvenat-ing the body by different rasayans and procedures.Finally, the person has to maintain his or her nutri-tion to keep the body rejuvenated.

Detoxification consists of the purva karmas, thepradhan karma (or panchkarmas) and the paschatkarmas. The pre-procedures to panchkarma iscalled purva karmas. They include nutrition andcertain procedures.

Nutrition consists of all vegetarian foods taken insmall quantities, plus internal oleation by consum-ing ghee (organic only). A gradual decrease infoods is advised, followed by oil massage usingmedicated oils, and then steam is recommended.An oil massage helps to move toxins to the elimina-tion passages and steam helps to increase elimina-tion by sweating.

During this time, it is also recommend-ed that a person begins pranayam, andperforms yoga asanas and kriyas tohelp calm and center the mind togradually balance the emotional tox-ins and blocked emotional energies.

After the purva karma, the nextstep is the panchkarmas, or the fiveprocedures for deep tissue detoxifica-

tion. These involve:NASAYAM: nasal insufflations and face massage toallow elimination through the sinuses and nasalpassages.VAMAN: a medicated emesis therapy that removeskapha toxins collected in the body and the respira-tory tract.

VIRECHAN: medicated purgation therapy thatremoves pitta toxins accumulated in the liver

and gallbladder. It completely cleanses thegastro-intestinal tractVASTI / BASTI: cleanses accumulated toxins from all the three doshas throughthe colon. Also, medicated oil or ghee anda herbal decoction is given as an enema to

clean the colon.ask@drshikha.com

MIND BODY SOULSHIKHA SHARMA

HEAL THYSELF

A DAY IN THE LIFE

Vikas sticks to eating just one thing for dinner – which varies between dal, fish orroasted chicken. He also swears by desi ghee. Although his restaurant closes at 11 pm,Vikas is usually there till 1 am, taking care of everything personally.

MORNINGVikas wakes up at 7 am to analarm that buzzes to the sound ofchanting from the Golden Temple.He starts his day with a fruit, usually a banana, followed bywarm water. Vikas runs for at least30 minutes, has a breakfast of sixegg whites and then leaves for hisrestaurant, Junoon.

AFTERNOONAt noon, Vikas takes a break witha big cappuccino and then goesback to work. Lunch generallytakes place around 3 pm whenVikas eats some dal and dahi. Postlunch it’s time for various meet-ings; and then at 5 pm, Vikastakes a break for about 15 minutesto meditate.

EVENINGAt 6 pm, Vikas goes backto the restaurant fordinner service. He isat the restauranttill 11 pm, so he usually endsup eating dinner thereitself.

“Cooking is like love. It should be entered into with abandon or not at all” – Harriet Van Horne, US newspaper columnist

Photo: THINKSTOCK

Have you done any of the followinglately:

Created a Facebook account foryour dog, so he can boast about thegood life he leads? (a la Facebookfounder Mark Zuckerberg who has onefor his dog, Beast).

Tweeted on behalf of your cat, mak-ing him the feline star on Twitter?(Just like American Jason Scott –@sockington).

Included your pet in your weddingceremony? (American Idol singerCarrie Underwood and hockey playerMike Fisher had their rat terrier, Ace,go down the aisle in a Swarovski crys-tal encrusted tuxedo).

THESE ARE just a few of themany ways in which pet par-ents (don’t ever call themowners!) have taken their

love of their pets to new levels.People have always been crazyabout their pets, of course, butthese days they don’t shy away fromexpressing their love in public.

LOVE IS ALL AROUNDOne reason for this sudden surge ofindulgent pet parents is that thenumber of animal owners hasincreased, explains Dr NarendraGandhi, from Delhi-based Gandhi’sPet Clinic. “When I started practic-ing in 1991, I would say five per centof Indians, especially in the metros,had pets,” says Dr Gandhi, adding,“Now, close to 40 per cent ofIndians have them.”

And becoming a pet parentmeans that Indians are now ‘pet-ting’ their pets more than ever.Delhite Archana Kumari Singh,director, Frazer & Haws, confessesthat though she disciplines her chil-dren, she can’t bring herself to dothe same to her two dogs Amigoand Rufus. “They have to eat every-thing we eat and they sleep on thebed with us. They cannot talk sowhy punish them?” reasons Singh.

Some couples have also satisfied

all their parental needs via theirpets. Vipasha and Viren Saxena,who live in Noida and have beenmarried for 12 years, decided not tohave children but have three dogsand two cats for company. “We lovethem and care for them like chil-dren,” says Viren, a statement thatwould have raised more than a feweyebrows some years ago.

THE WRITE WAY TO DO ITPet parents are also taking up theirpens to declare their love. In thebook How Cheeka Became A StarAnd Other Dog Stories, one of thecontributing writers, Nafisa Ali

Sodhi, explains how she cut downon her social commitments to carefor Macho, the family dog who wasstruck by paralysis. And last year,Habib Rehman, a well-known namein the hotel industry, came out withHome For Gori, a book that detailedhis poignant relationship with hisdog, Gori. Launched on Gori’s fifthdeath anniversary, the book had apurpose – “It will help me share myjoy and sorrow of owning and lovinga pet with other animal lovers,” saidRehman.

Though a nascent trend andrelated to the worldwide success ofMarley & Me (a best-selling book by

PET PARENTSWISH FOR...

22 VARIETY

A strong sign that people are treating petsas children is that today couples negotiatefor their pet’s custody when they separate

1Lots of air-conditioned, spacious, well-kept boarding

facilities manned by people whoreally love animals. There are notmany decent places to leave yourpets when you are away.

2Good training institutes thattrain pets. Don’t you want to sip

your coffee in a café with yourBadal or Bela for company?

3But before that, restaurants,malls and other public places

must start allowing pets. Yes, yes,we will clean the poop.

4Blood banks. When pets fall ill,it is nearly impossible to save

their lives because there are noblood banks.

5Pet-friendly offices or crèches,so that we are not constantly

worried about them while we areat work. We really do love themlike our children, you know!

MARCH 11, 2012

Who’s Mama’sLittle Pet?(And papa’s too?)Pet dogs and cats,of course. But today they’re akinto their owners’(sorry, parents’)children by Parul Khanna Tewari

PET: Sky or Skypoo; Breed: CockerSpanielPia got him with her first paycheque 10 years ago. She is the disciplinarian in the house. Thougha little fearful of Pia, Sky alsothrows tantrums, especially whenshe is packing to travel. Qualitytime for them? Holidaying together.

PIA TRIVEDI | VJ/Model

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American journalist John Groganthat was turned into a successfulfilm), books on pets appeal to a lotof us, say experts. “Publishers arediscovering that there is a marketfor such stories. It is like when thebook What To Expect When You’reExpecting came out, it was a sensa-tion. There was always a demand,but nobody talked about the topic,”explains Anant Padmanabhan, vicepresident, sales, Penguin India.

Pet parents are also documentingtheir passion on social networkingsites. Information that would havebeen of no interest to people – thepet’s eating, bathing or (forgive us),defecating habits – are now hot top-ics, and many pet parents do thisfor no other reason than ‘pure love’.“My father would think that all thistalk of pets on the Internet andbooks was frivolous, but these arethings that occupy our minds andsomething we indulge in constantly,”says Padmanabhan.

PETS ARE BIG BUSINESSAnother way pet parents areexpressing their love is via theirwallets. From chewy toys to salonvisits to pet birthdays, there are alarge number of people out therewilling to spend huge sums on theirpet children, and a whole industryaiming to cash in on this ‘relation-ship’. As actress Gul Panag, a com-mitted dog lover, says, “There’s evena pet fair and a website (petvaca-tions.com) that gives informationabout hotels that allow pets so thatyou can travel with them.”

One such establishment is theFour Seasons Hotel in Mumbai,which allows guests to stay withtheir pets. Once a guest is allotted aroom, a sign saying ‘dog inside’ ishung up so that a dog bark so closedoesn’t scare other guests. “Ourphilosophy is ‘Home Away FromHome’, and since we have so many

guests who constantly travel alone,we allow them to bring their pet forcompany,” explains Divya Mohan,public relations manager, FourSeasons Mumbai.

On a more sombre note, PetAnimal Welfare Society (PAWS), anNGO that works for animal welfare,inaugurated Delhi’s first crematori-um for pets at Chattarpur. The facil-ity has been opened by Dr RTSharma and Sunil Kalra (his dogdied a few years ago and he couldn’tfind a decent place to bury him).

LONELY HEARTS CLUBPerhaps the strongest sign that peo-ple are increasingly treating theirpets as much-loved children is thefact that their custody is increasing-ly being negotiated when couplesseparate or divorce. According toadvocate Monika Arora, a practic-ing lawyer in the Delhi High Courtand Supreme Court of India, “Petparents find that they have toomany emotions associated withtheir pet, and it becomes difficultfor them to let go. Pets also provideseparated couples companionship

and unconditional love.”Thirty-two year old chartered

accountant Chirag Dewan and hiswife chalked out a proper custodyarrangement for their dog Bosco.Bosco stays with Chirag three daysa week, and Chirag’s wife gets cus-tody for the next three days. “Boscohas now gotten used to the routineand he loves seeing both of us,”

explains Chirag. “He was like thera-py for me. Also, both my ex-wife andI love him equally, so it wasn’t fair tohim or us for Bosco to stay with justone of us.”

Many single people are also turn-ing to pets as a substitute for com-plicated human relationships. “It’snice to have some semblance of lifein the house when you come back,”says 29-year-old journalist MeghnaBhatt, who has two kittens.Similarly, actress Gul Panag gotMilo, a beagle, when she wasunmarried and living alone inMumbai. Soon, Milo got adjusted toher life and would not complaineven when she would wake up lateand take him for a walk, explainsPanag. She adds that she would takeMilo when she went grocery shop-ping, and he would wait for her inthe car. Milo has also accompa-nied Panag on her many tripsacross the country. “JetAirways allows small dogsin the cabin. So Milo hasdone 40,000 miles already,”explains Panag.

parul.khanna@hindustantimes.com

PETS : Achilla (right) and Bella(left); Breed: Cocker SpanielsAchilla listens to Anushka the mostbut Bella is more pampered. Anushka shops for both whenabroad and takes them for playdates. Her father sees Bella as hisdaughter and her mother fussesover both of them like children.

23

MARCH 11, 2012

PET ADOPTIONS: THINK BEFORE YOU LEAPNGOs who work with animals regularlyput up rescued, abandoned or old pupsand cats up for adoption. Here’s howhow animal volunteers conduct the

adoption process:

1A short chathelps us know

why people areconsidering a pet.

2The poten-tial family is

shown pictures of animals. They thenvisit the pup or kitten in its fosterhome. We then explain details such as food habits, the animal’s tempera-ment etc.

3If there are already pets in theprospective house, we guide the

family through the process.

4Parents need to fill a form, givetheir ID and address proof, and are

given info about vaccines, etc.

5 Volunteers go on home visits tocheck the progress of the pet. If we

suspect something out of the ordinary– if the animal is tied for long hours,aggressive behaviour or even if the an-imal doesn’t seem adjusted, it isbrought back and is put for adoption..

ANUSHKA MANCHANDA | singer

AVANI SHAH WITH SILKWORM

Silkworm was brought to an animal welfare NGO to gettreated for an eye infection. Mumbai hairstylist Avani Shahadopted the cat, who now joins her three other cats

CAPTAIN PAOROSH BULSARAWITH NHEZANheza, a very ill stray dog, changed several homes, before finding a home– and good health – with Paorosh,who works in the Merchant Navy

Photo: THINKSTOCK

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Courtesy: Shruti Shetty, architect, and in-chargeof cat adoptions, World For All (WFA), Mumbai

hindustantimes.com/brunch

IT’S 4 PM and 24-year-old BenVarghese has a long to-do list.But everything must wait. Benhas to practice for an upcoming

tournament. He’s been the bestassaulter in the country for nearlyhalf a decade, now. And for the nextthree hours, all he can think of iskilling 5,000 bots. Virtually.

But it’s not all fun and games forBen. Gaming is a serious business, apotentially lucrative career choice.Ben does it for a living and makesR4 lakh a year, and he gets free keyboards, consoles, headphones –the fringe benefits of being a gamer.

Don’t drop your jaw yet. Pro-gamers abroad (North America,Europe, and especially South Korea)

are practically celebrities. Theymake thousands, even millions of dol-lars every year, playing in televisedtournaments. South Korean gamerLim Yo-Hwan (SlayerS_`BoxeR`)makes $400,000 a year. Americangamer Johnathan Wendel (Fatal1ty)wins about $500,000.

And if you think this is one ofthose “crazy things that happen

abroad,” consider this: the sevenmajor gaming tournaments in Indiaoffer prizes worth lakhs. Still notimpressed? The upcoming IndianGaming Carnival in April in GreaterNoida has a total prize purse of R1.5crore. Simply put, most winners canmake a few lakhs in prize money.

And this isn’t a case of all play andno work. It is a lot of hard work. Thegaming community stays up all nightto practice online with their friends,acquaintances or completestrangers. They interact with giftedamateurs and international cyberathletes, and practice for hours(sometimes days at a stretch).

“You just connect to the serversonline and play with anyone. Plus,spectator modules let you watch thegame. If you miss a tournament, you

can always catch it online. It’s agood way to learn,” says 19-year-oldgamer Siddhant Mehra.

WHO’S PLAYING?Gamers aren’t always socially awk-ward, solitary geeks, shying awayfrom the real world. “SeveralAmerican studies suggest that kidswho play games are more socialthan those who don’t,” says gamingexpert Gopal Sathe, editor of gam-ing blog split-screen.com.

Gamers have a life, a job, a family.Some are married, but most are sin-gle (the average age is 14-27 years).Some have supportive girlfriendswho accompany them to events,some are “practically married to thegame”. One gamer, say rumours inthe circuit, even took a consolealong on his honeymoon. “It’s a verybroad audience. There are parentswho play the games they don’t lettheir kids play,” adds Sathe.

Some are engineers, graphicdesigners, post-graduates. And anincreasing number of people, likeVarghese, are giving up their jobs oreducation to game full-time.

Besides the lakhs at the afore-mentioned big events, there areevents (offering a respectableR10,000-R20,000) in colleges andgaming cafes to get by.

“But gaming is a costly sport. It’sdefinitely easier to support it with ajob,” says Mukul ‘terminator’Sabhani, a hardware engineer atDell. He was once a full-time gamer,

24 C I T Y S L I C K E RS

Ask any gamer for the one who makesthe most money, and you’ll get one an-swer: Ben Varghese. A full-time gamer,the B Com graduate never played com-puter games while growing up. He stilldoesn’t really like the computer. But,gaming is something else.

Ben was 17, and his friends alwayshung out at a gaming café in Kings Circle. “But I never really played. Atmost, I was a casual gamer,” he says.

One night at the café, a fight en-sued. Someone mocked his gamingskills (or lack thereof), and Counter-strike became Ben’s counter strike. “Iwanted to prove a point, it was allabout that one game,” he says.

He started practicing every day,

often for 10-15 hours. Sometimes forfour-five days at a stretch, with nosleep and little food. “I practiced alone.On an average, I’d kill 5,000 bots (char-acters controlled by the computer) aday. The idea was to become faster.”

And he did.Ben started playing with others, and

they formed a gaming team: ATE. Theymanaged to find sponsors in 2007, andhave remained undefeated in Indiasince then. His five-member Counter-strike team makes about R15-20 lakhevery year. It’s R3-4 lakh per person,and that’s just in cash. Every eventcomes with freebies and goodies.

They travel abroad for internationalevents, watch televised tournamentsonline and practice often.

It was hard work, but Ben grew tolove the game. “Counterstrike is thebest stress reliever,” he says. “Itstrengthens your reflexes, increasesyour hand-eye coordination… and it’sthe show stealer at every event.”

MARCH 11, 2012

Gaming isn’t just for those socially awkward geeks anymore. Everybody’splaying, and many for money... we’retalking a LOT of moneyby Saudamini Jain

BBEENN VVAARRGGHHEESSEEAAggee:: 24 LLooccaattiioonn:: Mumbai GGaammee:: Counterstrike (CS) OOnnlliinnee ggaammeerr nnaammee:: R4id (read: raid)

Games are another form of entertainmentand cultural expression. You can huntdown a civilisation, you can explore

continents... there’s so much you can do

“Thank you Mario! But our princess is in another castle!” – Toad in Super Mario Bros

The BigGame Plan

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but prefers having a consistentsource of income. “I still attend allevents, and practice as much –every night and all weekend.”

A 2011 Grant Thornton reportpredicts that the gaming market inthe country is estimated to growfrom R900 crore in 2010 to touchR2,125 crore in 2013. The urbanIndian is getting hooked on to gam-ing like never before. “Games areanother form of entertainment, aform of cultural expression – espe-cially for theyounger gen-eration. You canhunt down acivilisation,you can explorecontinents...there’s so muchyou can do,” saysSathe.

Andthere’s some-thing for

everyone. First-person shooters for action-lovers, real-time strategyfor planners, role-playing for daydreamers, and sports games forthose who love the outdoors.

Or you could be a casual gamer. Itcould be blowing upthose nasty green pigs

in Angry Birds, or living the goodlife as an avatar in The Sims.According to an Internet andMobile Association of India report,41.2 per cent of the total activeInternet users in 2010 were gamers.

It’s not much, but it’s a start. Thegamer is no longer the good-for-noth-ing bum or the weird geek, he or shecould be training to be the next bigcyber athlete – rich, famous

and successful.saudamini.jain@

hindustantimes.com

25twitter.com/HTBrunch

MARCH 11, 2012

WHAT’S HOTFFIIRRSSTT--PPEERRSSOONN SSHHOOOOTTEERRFirst-person shooters (FPS) are atype of 3D shooter games, whereyou see the action through the per-spective of the protagonist. Youare the main character you’re con-trolling. The gameplay centres ongun and weapon-based combat.PPooppuullaarr ggaammeess:: Counterstrike, Callof Duty, Battlefield, Crysis

RREEAALL--TTIIMMEE SSTTRRAATTEEGGYYThese are the strategy gamesplayed in real-time. Essentially, youcontrol a large number of units in atactical game scenario. You plan acity, build an army, construct atown hall… you play king, com-mander, God, anything.PPooppuullaarr ggaammeess:: StarCraft, Warcraft, Age of Empires

RROOLLEE--PPLLAAYYIINNGG GGAAMMEESSRole-playing games (RPGs) let youcontrol a character, and live as thischaracter in a fictional virtualworld. These include massivelymultiplayer online role-playinggame (MMORPG), where a largenumber of players interact withone another.PPooppuullaarr ggaammeess:: Skyrim, Deus Ex,Final Fantasy, World of Warcraft

SSPPOORRTT GGAAMMEESSYou can play a sport, virtually.Football, cricket, golf, you nameit. The video game imitates the

real game, some feature realteams and players.PPooppuullaarr ggaammeess:: FIFA, Tiger

Woods PGA Tour

Gaming is in her blood. Her dad games,as does her little sister. For ApoorvaMohan, it started with Mario, Contraand Bomberman, when she was threeyears old. As a teenager, it was VirtualCop, Motorcross Madness, DukeNukem and everything else she couldget her hands on – including the X-rat-ed ones.

Now, it’s Call of Duty 4: Modern War-fare. Iron Babe is a girl who plays aFirst Person Shooter. And that by itself,ask any boy, is impressive. “I alwayspreferred shooting games. And CODmakes you feel like you’re actuallyfighting a war for your country. I come

home from work at 8 and game allnight, and all weekend,” says Apoorva.

She makes about R20,000 a year, andsome more in goodies. But her clan,Evox, is doing well and the future looksbright. Besides, she works as a full-time graphic designer, so money isn’tan issue. “Gaming is like my secondlife, so I don’t go out much.”

There are barely any female gamersin the circuit. And the boys like it thatway. “It’s hard because people don’ttake me seriously. It’s the Indian malementality, many say it directly: gamingis not for girls,” says Apoorva. “It’s somuch fun to beat a guy, especially anIndian guy. They go into shock.”

But Apoorva’s very clear about onething: she’s not one of the guys. Shelikes pink, and she cried when CaptainPrice, a major character in Call of Duty4, died at the end of the game. She’shere to play, and she’s good at it.

AAPPOOOORRVVAA MMOOHHAANNAAggee:: 21 LLooccaattiioonn:: Delhi GGaammee:: Call of Duty (COD)OOnnlliinnee ggaammeerr nnaammee:: Iron Babe

A counter terrorist (CT) inCounterstrike.These are the‘good guys’ inthe first-person

shooter game

Manchester Unitedcentre-forwardWayne Rooney stars in (and is onthe cover of) FIFA.

A femalenight elf

in the multiplayer online role-

playing gameWorld of

Warcraft

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Sexiest actors in Bollywood?Without sounding partial toanyone, I really admire Kareena, Vidya, Hrithik andRanbir. Indian models who have managed tomake it big internationally?I really feel that both LaxmiRana and Ujjwala Raut havemade us proud.Have you ever faced a wardrobe malfunction?Fortunately, I haven’t been in an

embarrassing situation like thisever. The last line of your autobiographywould read?...To be continued. Three cosmetics you can’t do without? Under eye cream, lip balm anda blush.What do you prefer – a little blackdress or a black saree?I actually love both. And therest depends on the occasion.

If you could choose any movie as yourdream debut, which one would it be?Honestly, I am quite happy withAisha as my debut film.Define the styling of your label.I believe in keeping it simpleand not too over the top. Fashion for everyone is what Ibelieve in and that’s what mydesigns also stand for.An item number you would loveto do?I would definitely love to danceon something totally Indian like Chikni Chameli. If you could be the editor of a maga-zine, who would you put on the cover?Someone doing something re-

ally worthwhile likeHillary Clinton oreven AngelinaJolie.You de-stress by...Going to the spaand by doing something creative.What makes your day?Spending goodtimes with my familyand friends.What spoils it?

My day can get spoilt by myown mood.What do you love to gorge on after along day at work?Biryani and raita. One gadget you love?My iPad.The last time you had a bad hair day?There are days when my hairrefuses to fall the way I want itto. The last thing you bought for under`10?Pinch-clips for my hair in various colours. You are closest to?My mother.

26 facebook.com/hindustantimesbrunchPERSONAL AGENDA

Model/Actor/Designer

I WOULD LIKE TO LIVE INTEL AVIV AND BALI

Spending summers therewould be fun

—Interviewed by Veenu Singh

FIRSTBREAK An Oil ofOlay cam-paign at 19and in thefilm Aisha

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MARCH 11, 2012

I WOULD GO TO SOUTHAMERICA – BRAZIL,

ARGENTINAAND PERU

if i could...

I WOULD DESIGN ALL THE COLLECTIONS OF MY LINE,LISA LOVES SHER SINGH,FOR ONE YEAR IN A WEEK

What bliss!

SUN SIGNGemini

BIRTHDAYJune 17

SCHOOL/COLLEGEFinished high schoolfrom Australia, startedmodelling soon after

PLACE OF BIRTHChennai

LOW POINTOF YOURLIFEWhen I movedback to India, I had to startfrom scratch

CURRENTLY DOINGHave collaborated withglobal lifestyle brandSher Singh to designclothes, I also havetwo films in my kitty

HIGH POINTOF YOUR LIFE At 19 thingsstarted happen-ing for me. I wasearning goodmoney

HOMETOWNMumbai

Lisa Haydon

WHAT MAKESYOU FEELSEXY?

Perfumeand ofcourse, goodclothes

Lookaroundandhavefun