SUNDAY MAGAZINE, NEW DELHI, JUNE 26, 2011Free with your copy of Hindustan Times

Author Amitav Ghosh says he is a slowwriter. He counts VS Naipaul as one ofhis major inspirations. He was deeplyinfluenced by Aradhana. And he’s justwritten a masterful new book – thesecond in an ambitious trilogy

Yes, we canI HAVEN’T even reached the otherarticles in today’s edition (I’m stuck atHow Dhiraj Arora got thin, got wiseand got a life, 19 June) and I’m alreadywriting this letter to you. I need tothank Dhiraj Arora in Pranav Dixit’s re-juvenating article. He has done to meexactly what Brian Tracy has done toDhiraj. His mantras like “Try being abetter person every single day”, ”Livelife on your own terms, and not for oth-ers” and “Self help is just self realisa-tion. Get your priorities right” are trulymagical! Dhiraj's inspirational narrativeof how he got his life back on track, beit his shape, losses or family, was high-ly motivational. Thank you Brunch!

— NANDITA CHETTRI , Delhi

DHIRAJ ARORA’S story is an excel-lent account of how to change your lifewith determination by following ahealthy daily routine. But this cannotbe followed blindly. Points like con-suming parathas and beer but com-pletely abstaining from tea, coffee andcold drinks, need be pondered upon.However, all in all, an inspiring tale!

— DR NARENDRA KUMAR, Delhi

Why be slutty?I WAS mesmerised by the way SeemaGoswami expressed herself sensibly inher article.(Slut Walk? No Thanks! 19June). I have always maintained that“right to dress” should not bestretched to have a “right to undress”and “freedom of expression” shouldnever be misused as “freedom tohurt.”Just as the slut walkers want others tobehave responsibly (when they arebadlly dressed) they too have thesame obligation. I often wonder whyfemales (unlike males) measure theirliberty with their freedom to show skin.When males show their sexuality theynever complain if they get a response(if at all they get one!). Women shouldattempt to shake the conscience ofmales by exposing their usual tenden-cies of showing their sexuality, verballyor otherwise.-DR RAKESH KUMAR PANDEY, New Delhi

YOUR LAST issue had to be one ofthe best, with articles on all kinds ofissues. Really enjoyed reading it on arainy Sunday morning, after havingwaited for it all night.— SWATI KAUL, via email

HINDUSTAN TIMES SUNDAY MAGAZINE4

DESIGN: Ashutosh Sapru (National EditorDesign), Swati Chakrabarti, Rakesh Kumar,Ashish Singh, Saket Misra

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

Write to brunchletters@hindustantimes.com or to18-20 Kasturba Gandhi Marg, New Delhi - 110001

PPaannkkaajj JJhhaaYour wellness special avery good heath capsule. I am alsohealth conscious but used to eatheavy dinner now i will take it lightly.Thnx for ur cover diet rule no.1

AAddiittiiRRaayyAbsolutely wonderful..! i'vealways wondered as to even aftertakin somuch of care n effort y dontour home-made fries turn out to bperfect! thnxx a ton to vir sanghhvifor encoding the secret for perfectfries...

KKuusshhaallDDaahhiiyyaa Fantastic article byseema goswami...i agree wid her...thrr defintly many other and btr ways fstndin up fr our freedm than d slutwalks. Adored it compltely n dawayshe explns her point.

facebook.com/hindustantimesbrunchWe’re Logged On

JUNE 26, 2011

ShahzanPadamseeThe actress tellsus what makesher feels sexy,what makes herday and why herfirst kiss wasawkward as hell

Calling All Tweepletwitter.com/HTBrunch

BRUNCH ON THE WEB

INDULGE

2 6 . 0 6 . 1 1 I N T H I S I S S U E

FEEDBACK

LIVE

Taking A Break?Travel the world if you want to; but don’tknock the humble ‘family holiday’

DRINK

Wine Secrets UncorkedBe it the right taste or right year, all yourwine FAQs answered

PLAY

Being A Twit: A Socially Irritable TaleDear dorks on Twitter: here is an openletter just for you. #havefun

LISTEN

Two For JoyTwo favourite musicians release two newalbums. Can you ask for more?

Cover design: ASHUTOSH SAPRUCOVER PHOTO: RAJ K RAJ

Once Upon aTime 24Relive theforgotten artof Dastangoi

We hear the word ‘moderation’so often that it no longer holdsmeaning. What a pity. Becauseit really is the key to a healthyand centred life. An exclusivestory from the Brunch Quarterlyonly on our website!

BEING IN BALANCE

hindustantimes.com/brunch

THE GHOSHWHOWALKS 12With a boyish sense ofadventure and influencesas varied as Hindi cinema,art, gardening and authorVS Naipaul, it’s no wonderthat Amitav Ghosh is sucha profoundly exciting writer

Ghosh’s River of Smoke(Penguin Viking) is beinglaunched in Delhi on July 1

Super Power 6Think your smartphone couldn’tget any smarter? Think again!

PERSONAL AGENDA 30

VARIETY

And don’t forget to catch up withMaria Goretti in her happy kitchenalong with the funniest voices fromthe tweet-o-sphere! Log on forweekly blogs from GursimranKhamba, Rajneesh Kapoor, The

Fake Jhunjhunwala, Rahul Roushan,Rohan Joshi and Tanmay Bhat.Plus, an all-access pass to olderBrunch issues – all in one place!

AccessorydesignerShahrukh Zaidishows what youshould be carry-ing around thisseason

PHOT

O:RA

JKRA

J

BRAND NEW VIDEO: BAGGED IT!

@roshni_donnyAwesome article aboutDhiraj Arora, givenmemotivationand inspiration. Thanks for ths sun-day gift.

@serendipitypistA fine balance of foodalongsideMother Dairy Icecream adand perfect french fries... you got itall..

@RashuTai Today's @HTBrunch isconfusing. The cover story is on fit-ness and then Vir Sanghvi talksabout perfect French Fries. My tum-my be flummoxed.

@DILIPtheCHERIAN @RajivMakhniGreat piece that cleared someclouds for me..for a nervous neo-phyte youwere veryreassuring..Catch up soon !!

Relive Dastangoi, theforgotten art of Urdu story-telling with professionalstorytellers MahmoodFarooqui and Danish Husainin this video at hindustan-times.com/dastangoi

IT’S STORYTIME!

TECH TALK

Tech Talk

JUNE 26, 2011HINDUSTAN TIMES SUNDAY MAGAZINE6

THIS TIME last month,my house was sunk ingloom. In the living room,my brand new Samsung

Nexus S smartphone – bless its little soul!– lay face down in its sleek leather casket,ready to be consigned to the Cemetery ofTechnological Obsolescence. To be fair,the death didn’t come as a shock. Even asI bought my Nexus sometime around the

end of last year, there had alreadybeen whispers of newer, faster,more powerful phones,phones with dual-core CPUs,dedicated graphics process-ing units and gobs of RAM,that were ready to hit themarket at any moment. And

even though my Nexus wasn’texactly a weakling, its days were

numbered the moment Samsungreleased that sleek behemoth, the GalaxyS II. This one boasts of such impressivespecs as a 1 GHz dual-core processor, 1GB of RAM and a quad-core GPU. It is,by some measures, the most powerfulsmartphone in the market right now.If you use a smartphone, hold on tight:

this year, your phone is about to get a lotsmarter. Many of last year’s top-endsmartphones packed in at least a 1 GHzprocessor but 2011 promises to be theyear of the dual-core smartphone. In fact,analysts predict that every high-endphone released this year will sport a dual-core processor. Christmas may evenusher in the age of the quad-core mobile!What dual-core chips basically do is

this: they enable more power to besqueezed out of the processor becausethey contain two ‘cores’. For instance, a 1GHz dual-core chip will have two 1 GHzprocessors that can be used in parallel tospeed up the performance of your mobile.What this means for you is simple: high-definition video playback and recording,console-quality 3D gaming, on-the-flymultitasking and basically carryingaround the equivalent of a small netbookin your pocket.Is it time to throw away your clunky

laptop yet? And what – just what – is yoursmartphone morphing into?

EVOLUTION, REVOLUTION“Smartphones will be the computers forwhat technologists call the ‘massivemiddle of the market’, that is, amajority of people,” says Internetentrepreneur and gadgets editorfor MWmagazine, MadhulikaMathur. Two things are happen-ing in the world today. “One,smartphones are evolving at sucha rapid pace that they will soonrival the speed and capability of net-books, if not laptops. Two, our lifestylesare becoming increasingly mobile. Withhigh-speed wireless networks available,

we are no longer tied to our laptopsand desktops.”Smartphones have been around for a

couple of years but experts believe thatwe are now entering an era of the supersmartphone. “What’s inside a mobiledevice now is as powerful as a device youwould use for computing,” says residentBrunch columnist and Gadget Guru RajivMakhni. “Naturally, there are differencesin the way these processors are built formobile phones and your regular laptops,but from a sheer horsepower standpoint,they are equal.”So what do you do on your phone? My

Nexus S stores my entire music collection.The sharp, high-resolution screen is greatto watch movies and TV shows during aboring flight (I’ve been catching up onDexter), play games (Angry Birds hasbeen beat so now it’s Fruit Ninja), browse

the web (read Facebook), listen tomusic (paws up, Lady Gaga fans!)and read ebooks (Pride andPrejudice. About damn time).The camera takes fairly goodpictures and the built-in GPSmakes sure I never lose myway on Delhi’s roads.All these things, believes

Mathur, put pressure on the smart-phone to be more powerful because then,it “no longer competes with other smart-phones. It’s competing with your PCs,

SuperPowerThink yoursmartphonecouldn’t getany smarter?Brace your-self: you’rein for the

ride of yourlife

by PranavDixit

EVERYTHING PLUS THE KITCHEN SINKVivid graphics, a rich Internet experience, 3Dgaming, high-definition movies, zippy multi-tasking... and it’s only going to get better!

ANALYSTSPREDICTTHAT 2011

WILL BE THEYEAR OF THEDUAL-CORESMART-PHONE

IMAGING: PRASHANT CHOUDHARYPHOTOS: THINKSTOCK

JUNE 26, 2011HINDUSTAN TIMES SUNDAY MAGAZINE8

Tablets, netbooks, MP3 play-ers, digital cameras, GPS unitsand e-readers,” she says. “So

doesn’t it stand to reasonthat the hardware inside thephone needs to evolve as well? If youput more power in these phones, itcould convince buyers to chuck theiPod or drop plans to buy that compactdigital camera they’ve been eyeing.”The name of the game is conver-

gence. It’s about stuffing everything pos-sible into that 5-inch slab of metal andplastic in your hand. Powerful, multi-corehardware has been gracing the insides ofyour laptops for years now, so the currenttrend suggests that at some point in thefuture, your phone and your laptop areheaded for a resounding collision.“I think that even smaller, 7-inch

Tablets like the BlackBerry PlayBook willeventually converge into your smart-phone,” says Nishant Padhiar, editor, Stuff(India), a gadget magazine. “The Tablet,however, will become a standalone catego-ry. So we will all have a Tablet and this all-in-one pocket device for everything else.”

YES, YOU CAN!So what will your future phone be capa-ble of (let’s keep the sci-fi stuff – expand-able displays, flexible screens, phonesthat are embedded in your brains – out ofthe picture for now)? “In the near future,

smartphones will be able to offer aPC-like Internet experience, richand vivid graphics, fast down-loads, 3D gaming, multitasking,amazing high-definition videoplayback, uninterrupted batterylife and multipoint video confer-

encing. Among other things,”smiles Mathur. That’s

the vision that chipsterslike Intel and ARM, theleading processor makershave. “They’re targetingmid-2012, so it’s not faroff,” says Mathur.The right innovation,

however, needs to happenon the software side.Right now, we are usingpowerful hardware torun mobile operatingsystems that were meantfor older generationhardware. “Once software catches upwith current generation hardware,you could do things like stream amovie from your phone to your living

room HDTV, play a game and havesomeone else use your phone as a WiFihotspot – all at the same time with zerostuttering or glitches,” says Makhni.Also possible, is glassless 3D: yes, actual

three-dimensional images popping out ofyour phone screen without those clunkyglasses! Currently, this technology is possi-ble only on screens that are five inches orsmaller, making it perfect for your mobilescreen. Plus, it requires vast amounts ofprocessing power, which mobile phonesdidn’t have before. “The possibilities areendless. It’s exciting,” says Padhiar.

TOO FAST TOO SOON?Early this year, Motorola tookconvergence to the next level by

releasing the Atrix, a high-endsmartphone that has horsepower

enough to run your laptop and your desk-top computer. All you need to do is slide itinto a dock that you connect to a plasticlaptop body with just a screen, keyboardand battery and voila! Suddenly, you havea full-fledged computer system!But that doesn’t mean that people will

suddenly abandon PCs. Our primary com-puting experience still comes largely fromsturdy, workhorse laptops and desktops.That is not going to change any time soon.“All of us have at least one ‘mothership’machine which is home to all our criticaldata – movie andmusic collections, impor-tant documents, pictures, financial dataandmore.We would still like to rely onsuch a system,” says Padhiar. Unless some-thing like Apple’s recently announcediCloud service, which provides a backup ofall your important data on the Internet,gains serious traction (difficult in a coun-try like India that continues to be alarm-ingly bandwidth deficient). Then, it will bea different story.There are also different use cases for

different devices. I cannot – cannot –imagine typing this story on my Nexus S(though I know people who are capable oftyping entire Hindustan Times columnson their BlackBerrys). For that, I needmy good old Dell. Also, processor-inten-sive apps like video-editing and graphicdesigning require you to use a powerfullaptop or desktop computer. So clearly,there’s plenty of room for improvement.But does blitzing ahead at such a

breathless pace have a flipside? Is theresuch a thing as innovatingtoo fast, too soon?Yes, says Ajith Pillai, a

tech enthusiast and blog-ger who runs the gadgetblog onlygizmos.com. “Wesaw mobiles with dual-core processors hittingthe market at the begin-ning of this year and bythe end, we’ll see thelaunch of quad-coredevices. For consumers, itis difficult to buy the ‘best’device as they change

every other week.”Early adopters, especially, get a raw

deal.“Frankly, to most con-

sumers, terms like dualand quad-coreprocessors, GPUand RAM are jar-gon. All they wantto know is whetherthey are going to beable to run the latestgame with all its bells andwhistles or if their smartphone is smoothand snappy,” says Padhiar.You know what else I care about? How

much these damn things are going to cost!pranav.dixit@hindustantimes.com

Future-proof yourself: hereare the most powerful smart-phones you can buy today!

SAMSUNG GALAXY S IITECH SPECS: Dual-core 1.2GHzARM Cortex-A9 processor, Mali-400MP GPU, Orion chipset, 1 GBRAM, up to 32 GB of internalstorageCHINK IN THE ARMOUR: A flimsy plasticbody that doesn’t really suit such apremium phone. Yes, we’renitpicking.PRICE: R31,000

POWER PORTAL

HTC SENSATIONTECH SPECS: 1.2 GHz dual-core processor,Adreno 220 GPU, Qualcomm MSM 8260Snapdragon, 768 MB RAMCHINK IN THE ARMOUR: A ‘death grip’ issuewith the WiFi. Grip it too hard and watchyour WiFi die. Also, the Super Clear LCDscreen doesn’t exactly make for pleasantviewing in bright sunlight.PRICE: R30,500

LG OPTIMUS 2XTECH SPECS: Dual-core 1GHzARM Cortex-A9 processor,ULP GeForce GPU, Tegra2 chipset, 512 MB RAMCHINK IN THE ARMOUR:The IPS capaci-tive touch-screen isn’tas awesomeas some ofthe displays thatthe competition sports.PRICE: R27,000.

*ALL PRICES ARE ROUNDED OFF

MOTOROLA ATRIXTECH SPECS: Dual-core 1GHz ARM Cortex-A9 processor,ULP GeForce GPU, Tegra 2 chipset, 1 GB RAMCHINK IN THE ARMOUR: A lacklustre 5 megapixel camera? ATFT screen? What is this, the 21st century?PRICE: Yet to be released in India.

YOURPHONE ANDYOUR LAPTOPARE HEADED

FOR ARESOUNDINGCOLLISION

IF YOU were in the Alps anddidn’t care where your nextmeal came from (because it wasall included in the itinerary) andgot up in a leisurely manner

every single day of your holiday, thengetting back to the daily grind is defi-nitely the last thing you want to do.And yet, holidays don’t last forever,

so back you must go. That’s the troublewith vacations. They lead to a discon-nect with your regular life. But (sigh),this is life and work is life (for most ofus) and we all have to deal with it atleast once a year. So we’re resigned toit, but… for the first day,colleagues had betterkeep out of our way.Because we snap a lot.“When we go on a

vacation there is no rou-tine or structure,” saysclinical psychologistSaloni Sawnani. “So it’sfun and exciting. But itmeans that getting backto routine is boring. Thiscreates a feeling of dread.”Getting back to work involves two

things. It means your long-dreamed-ofholiday is over. And it means catchingup with everything you’ve missed atwork as well as getting back to yourregular responsibilities. That’s a dou-ble whammy.This is what’s responsible for our

sense of depression at the thought ofresuming work.We knowwe’ll settle

down in a few days, but the firstday feels like hell. It doesn’t haveto be that way, though.We’ve gotsome advice from people who’velearned how to trash the post-vacation blues.

“THE MOMENT I GET BACK TOwork after a vacation, I plan aweekend break,” says MithuBasu, founder of Dolna – TheMovement, an art movement.“Whether it happens or not,looking forward to it keeps mepepped. This is the best way tobeat the back-to-work blues.”

KEEPING THE HOLIDAY SPIRITalive may be just as effective.

Remember, your colleagues arethe people you spend most of your

time with. So it actually feels quitegood chatting with them. And whenyou’ve just returned from a holiday,you have so much to talk about and somany pictures to share.And you could also return to the

age-old practice of bringing back good-ies for your colleagues. “When I visitmy hometown, I always bring backspecialties like sandesh and rossogollasfor everyone at work,” says RuchiraGanguly, a programmer who visitsKolkata every year. “This means myfirst day back at work is fun.”

IF WHAT’S MAKING YOU LOW IS THEthought of the double whammy ofcatching up with what you’ve missed,plus plunging back into your daily job,try this. “I always get back to work ona Friday, not a Monday,” says PradeepGoswami, a marketing executive. “Ithelps me get back into the routineknowing that the weekend starts thenext day. So I spend Friday catchingup, then I have two days off, and byMonday, I’m fully settled in.”

THE PROBLEMWITHmost of us is that we ekeour holidays out. So wescreech back into thecity after a gloriousvacation at 11 on Sundaynight and expect to befully adjusted to the day-to-day routine by 7 onMonday morning. Nowonder we’re grumpy!

“I make it a point to return frommyholiday at least three days before Iresume work,” says Smita Khedekar, ahospitality executive and mother oftwo school-going children. “This way Iammentally and physically preparedto get back to the office as the backlogat home has been cleared.”

RETURNING TO THE CITY ONE DAYbefore you have to go back to work isgood enough to prepare yourself, saysPallavi Krishnan, a cost accountant.“Though I find a break refreshing, Ialso feel a sense of anxiety about whathas happened at work when I was away– were there any changes that wouldaffect me and how to deal with thepiled up work. I believe onemust fightback and get back into the routineinstead of getting derailed,” she says.And though it doesn’t seem like a

good thing (your companions willcomplain), technology is a good way tokeep in touch with what’s going on atwork while you are away. JayeshShinde, an executive, says, “I keep intouch with my colleagues throughemails or phone calls and messages.This way I am not totally disconnectedand look forward to getting back.”

brunchletters@hindustantimes.com

JUNE 26, 2011HINDUSTAN TIMES SUNDAY MAGAZINE10

Nine To Five

‘THERE’S NOROUTINE IN AHOLIDAY. SOGETTING BACK

TOWORKSEEMS BORING’

If the thought ofreturning to theoffice after a gloriousvacation makes youthe world’s No. 1grouch, cheer up.Here’s how to easeback into workby Aruna Rathod

Holiday brood

MAKE YOUR HOLIDAY WORK FOR YOU

Get to the office

early on the day

you resumework. This way

you can get into

the routine easily

and fill up on

what’s been

happening while

you were away.

The bestway to getback is toease intoyour tasksgradually.Don’t tryand doeverythingat once.

An ‘I’m com-

ing back’email to your

manager be-

fore returning

is a good way

to get backinto the men-

tal space of

work.

Plan your hol-

iday well so it

is refreshing

and without

stress. If you

have truly en-

joyed your-self, it’s easi-

er to get back

to work.

Make creative

visualisation

work for you.

Think of the

hills andbeaches you

could go tonext time,when you feel

stressed.

PHOTO: THINKSTOCK

JUNE 26, 2011HINDUSTAN TIMES SUNDAY MAGAZINE12

t’s a blistering hot Sunday morning inDelhi and the last thing you expect tohear from Amitav Ghosh is how coldthe water in his hotel room is. “Theyhave a pool in my room. Can youimagine? A pool in the room! But Ican’t get into it because the water’stoo cold.”

I get a chance to check the temperature ofthe sunken pool the next evening and find thewater to be invitingly cool. “Hmm, yes, it is bet-ter now,” he had said before returning to hisglass of after-dinner (neat) whisky. I suddenlyhad this absurd image of Ghosh, arguablyIndia’s finest writer and a contemporary liter-ary master, stretching out in the pool with agold chain glinting from his neck and helpinghimself to a line of powder that matched thecolour of his snow white hair.But Ghosh is not a drug lord from Scarface.

Or, for that matter, one of those celebrity writ-ers whirling about the world doing the lit festcircuit, providing wise and witty observationsabout everything under the sun, and appearingon the covers of every second issue of glossymagazines. This Sahitya Akademi-winningauthor even has problems talking about thething he does and loves best: writing.“It’s very hard [to talk about the act of writ-

ing]. It’s impossible to say. It’s impossible toknow,” he says in between sips of Darjeeling teain the shade of the hotel lobby. He looks remark-ably fresh for someone who flew in the nightbefore from London where the book tour of thesecond volume of his ‘Ibis’ trilogy, River ofSmoke kicked off. (“I’m not feeling terribly freshthough,” he says with his schoolboy smile.) Onceyou realise that a few days before he had flowninto London from New York – where he lives(dividing time between homes in Goa andKolkata) with his wife Deborah Baker, an authorwhose biography of an American woman whomoved to Pakistan in the ’60s, The Convert, hasalso just been published – you are ready to feelbad about having asked him that silly ‘So, howdo you write?’ question.“The main thing about writing novels is con-

centration and focus and persistence. These areall things which are increasingly difficult in theworld we live in,” he says in his calming, sing-song voice. “Everything in the world is gearedtowards distraction, attention deficits. It’s notjust that writers have to do tours when the bookcomes out, or attend all these festivals. As awriter, you could continuously live in a state ofdistraction.”The piped muzak in the otherwise empty

With a boyish senseof adventure andinfluences as variedas Hindi cinema(think Aradhana),art, gardening andauthor VS Naipaul,it’s no wonder thatAmitav Ghosh issuch a profoundlyexciting writer

by Indrajit Hazra

TheGhoshWhoWalks

COVER STORY

JUNE 26, 2011HINDUSTAN TIMES SUNDAY MAGAZINE 13

lobby doesn’t distract him.“I’m a very slow writer. It really

takes a lot of work to write onepage, you know.” At 553-oddpages, River of Smoke, took onlythree years to come out since hefinished the first ‘volume’, Sea ofPoppies. The trilogy is Ghosh’s mostambitious work, an epic vision ofmasterful story-telling where history andindividuals slosh about in one coherent,remarkable tale of a time set in the early19th century just before the OpiumWarsbetween the British Empire and China. InRiver of Smoke, the story starts where Sea ofPoppies had ended: a storm in September 1838on the Indian Ocean catching three ships – theIbis, the Anahita and the Redruth with theircargoes of indentured labourers from Calcuttato Mauritius, of opium from Bombay to Canton,and of botanical specimens fromMauritius toLondon – and bringing them and the destiniesof their inhabitants closer together.While the first book chronicled the journey of

Deeti and Kalua and other labourers and con-victs across the seas, in River of Smoke, Ghoshdraws us into a gathering storm whose ingredi-ent is opium. In 2008, at the Mumbai launch ofSea of Poppies, Ghosh had spoken about howthe cities of Calcutta and Bombay were built onthe riches made by Indians from opium andhow we, unlike the Chinese, have forgotten thatnoxious chapter in history. In the new book,Ghosh reminds us with all the vividness anddexterity of a grand novelist how China playedsuch an important, yet forgotten role, in Indianhistory.“The strange thing is that I’ve travelled a

great deal in my life, but I’d never before eventhought of going to China. But it was Sea ofPoppies that took me in the direction of China.Then in 2007-08, I spent a lot of time inGuangzhou – modern Canton – and I becamevery fascinated with China,” says Ghosh withsudden animation. “I think one of the thingsthat hit me in the face in relation to China is ourutter and profound ignorance of it and I feel adeep shame for myself and for my country andmy culture.”In a way, the story of the first two books of

the ‘Ibis’ trilogy tell us about the machinations,the politics, the economics and the psychologybehind the selling of huge amounts of opiumfrom the poppy cultivating areas of easternIndia to a market in China. In the second chap-ter, the scene of the precious cargo of theAnahita washing all over the ship’s innards thatincludes its owner, the rich Parsi Bombay opiummerchant BahramModi, is overpowering andprovides a prelude to the greater inundation tocome.There is another scene, a flashback, where

Bahram is trying to convince his father-in-lawto diversify his ship-building business and getinto the lucrative opium trade.“Listen sassraji, he had said. I know you and

your family are committed to manufacturingand engineering. But look at the world aroundus; look at how it is changing. Today the biggest

profits don’t come from selling usefulthings: quite the opposite. The profits

come from selling things that are not of anyreal use... Opium is just like that. It is com-pletely useless unless you’re sick, but stillpeople want it. And it is such a thing thatonce people start using it they can’t stop;the market just gets larger and larger.

That is why the British are trying to takeover the trade and keep it to themselves.

Fortunately in the Bombay Presidency theyhave not succeeded in turning it into a monop-oly, so what is the harm in making some moneyfrom it?”

eavy shades of Sonny Corleone in MarioPuzo’s The Godfather trying to convince hisfather Vito to take up the offer of a rivalmafia family to go into the drug business.(Don Corelone said no; Seth Rustamjeefinally relents.) Even as I ask Ghosh

whether he wants the reader to find the echoesin opium being ‘force-sold’ in the early 1800s toChina with today’s hard-ball globalisation wherebig economic powers pry open resisting mar-kets, he widens his eyes, nods and smiles, thecombination of gestures adding up to an unsaid,“Yes, of course!”And yet for all the fumes of opium and the

geo-economics of the British and the East IndiaCompany, with Indian opiummerchants playing

their large role in this Other Great Game,Ghosh didn’t have the drug and its history oreven China and the OpiumWars in mind whenhe set out to write his epic three-part story.“I actually didn’t have China or opium at all in

my mind when I started this project. Whilewriting The Glass Palace [his 2000 novel on thechanging society in early 20th century Burma-India-Malay], the central character Rajkumargot me more and more interested in the story ofmigrants and migration. So The Sea of Poppiesstarted out as my exploration into the world ofindentured workers in the early 19th century,their stories of these epic journeys,” says Ghosh,himself having been a migrant who has movedfrom Calcutta to Dehradun to Delhi toAlexandria to Oxford to New York and Goa andKolkata. “One can understand the migration ofpeople from coastal parts of India crossing theseas to go to places as far off as Mauritius. Butpeople from Bihar and Jharkhand, Bhojpuriswho don’t have any water body for miles mak-ing such a journey was as intriguing as it wasincredible. Then it made sense. These wereopium-growing regions. Which is where themigrants and the opium story clicked intoplace.”As an anthropologist as well as a novelist,

Ghosh has always been interested in identitiesand how people ‘self-fashion’ themselves andthe ‘admixtures’ created in the process. In his1986 debut novel The Circle of Reason, thecourse of a Bengali weaver is charted as hetravels westwards, ultimately landing up inAlegria. Shadow Lines, published two yearslater, charts the trajectory of a young boy mov-ing from Calcutta to Delhi to London. In the2005 novel The Hungry Tide, Ghosh moveswith his characters not only in space but also intime.And then there’s the sea. While water bodies

have played an important role in his earlier sto-ries – in The Hungry Tide, the

coastal region of the Bayof Bengal in the

I’M A SLOWWRITER. ITTAKES A LOTOF WORKTO WRITEONE PAGE,YOU KNOW

PHOTO: SATISH BATE

JUNE 26, 2011HINDUSTAN TIMES SUNDAY MAGAZINE14

Sunderbans is the palpable protagonist – itis in the ‘Ibis’ project that the sea comesinto its own. The sea also explains hisdesire to have a home in Goa. “Just organis-ing everyday life in a city, any city, adds somuch to one’s disruptiveness. So I just want-ed to be not in a city. Many people love themountains. I love the sea. I wanted tobe near the sea.”Along with the sea, he also loves his

gardens – both in Brooklyn and in Goa.“Did you know that much of what wefind in gardens comes from China?” Heinsists that he’s not much of a greenthumb but he simply likes being in hisgardens. But loving the sea and potteringabout in gardens aren’t the same as mak-ing a novel teem with details about shipsand plants and other minutae that formthis novel set in history. His wrapping astory with facts has been a hallmark as awriter and creator of a world that greatlyresembles ours but doesn’t exist or neverexisted.Ghosh sounds a bit irritated when I ask

him how he balances all those facts in hisbooks with the fiction and whether he everworried – “now that it’s a daan haath kakhel for you” I added for protection – thatwith too much research, the ‘Ibis’ novels couldbecome a history book in disguise. He gives outan exasperated sigh and replies, “I could neverwrite a history book in disguise really because...because I am a novelist. I am a writer of fiction.That’s what I do. To write history is a very par-ticular thing. It calls for specific talents, whichare not my talents, you know. It’s not somethingthat can happen. First and foremost I think ofmyself as a storyteller.” He pauses. A sigh laterhe continues, “But historical research is inter-esting because of the background. This particu-lar world [of River of Smoke] is so little known.”

arlier in the interview, Ghosh had talkedabout Orhan Pamuk’s description of thenovel being a kind of encyclopaedia. “Iwas very struck by that. That’s certainly

the way I work. All the things that interestme go into my books.” I figure he had answeredmy silly question of how he ‘balanced’ researchwith storytelling already.I ask Ghosh at this point whether he has any

writer’s kinks. Goethe kept a rotten apple in hisdesk when he wrote; Philip Roth writes stand-ing up. He laughs and says that he needs to beat his desk while writing. At his three desks athis three homes, he clarifies. He also uses penand paper. “I’m very obsessive about paper andink and pens,” Ghosh says, leading me to sus-pect that he’s a fetishist, after which he addsperhaps a little too quickly, “I’m not a fetishist.But good writing paper is surprisingly difficultto find in America or, for that matter, in India.Good writing paper is now only produced inJapan and in Europe.”Which author would he consider as an influ-

ence? “I would say Naipaul.” He lets out a laughand continues, “I feel embarrassed to say thisnow because if you say that Naipaul was aninspiration to you it’s like saying that you sub-scribe to his idea that women are not novelistsand all these crazy things he says from time totime. But in my formative years as a reader,

Naipaul was incredibly important to me.Especially his travel books, I loved them. I read

them and told myself that I want to do this, Iwant to go to these places.”

So can a writer be disassociated from theperson and the views he holds? I ask Ghoshabout the old ‘good writer-bad human’dichotomy that plagues many readers. “Ithink you really have to separate the booksfrom the person. I mean, I would hate it ifsomeone would sit here talking to me andthen think that what I’m saying is the

equivalent of my books. Because it’s not. In yourbooks, you work at it, put your most consid-ered thoughts into it and it’s not like sittingacross a table at all. But I must say, in thecase of Naipaul’s latest statements, youcan’t help feeling a sense of derangement.And that’s why I think it’s so important toseparate the books from the man.”

Ghosh’s novels, especially the latestone, is incredibly visual. His words andpassages form pictures in the head inthe form of the reader’s private cinema.

Are there ‘cinematic’ influences?“Oh absolutely. Satyajit Ray was a major

influence for me. I was deeply immersed inhis films. In a way, Indian cinema of the’60s and ’70s was very important to me. Iremember the early Mrinal Sen, hisBhuban Shom. I’m still haunted by thatfilm, its images. But also Hindi cinema ofthat time. Aradhana.”

Aradhana? Shakti Samanta’s 1969Sharmila Tagore-Rajesh Khanna-star-ring remake of the ’40s Hollywood film

To Each His Own? Er, why, I ask Ghosh.“I loved that movie,” he laughs. “I also loved

the old Kishore Kumar movies. The ways inwhich the stories were constructed in Hindi

cinema, in Aradhana, had an important influ-ence on me and many other writers.”I still don’t get it. He may have loved these

movies, but them being an influence for him asa novelist? I egg him on. “See, I basically lostinterest in Hindi cinema during the AmitabhBachchan period. All that star appeal suckedout everything else. The story-telling power ofHindi cinema just disappeared. It just became aspectacle. But before that, what I would have

compared Hindi cinema to would be opera, youknow, structured like opera, in the sense thatlike opera always builds towards drama, in thesame way, Hindi cinema was very focused onbuilding towards climaxes, towards creating sit-uations of drama.”

hosh also loves art. His way of seeing,he tells me, is very much influencedby what he has seen of art. “It wassuch a pleasure to have a painter inthis book. Suddenly all the art I’veseen, it just came pouring out of me,”

he says gushingly, adding that 17th centurySpanish painter Velasquez and 16th centuryItalian master Caravaggio are among hisfavourite artists. “In both Velasquez andCaravaggio, there is so much drama.”Which is what River of Smoke, teeming with

characters (including a delightful cameo fromNapoleon Bonaparte), places, objects is about:drama. Literary fiction was arguably neversuch a page-turner, all 553-plus pages of it. Butlike the reader, the writer of River of Smokeconfesses to having tremendous fun writingsuch a book, piecing the puzzle, fitting oneshape to another.I sensed it even when Ghosh excitedly eluci-

dated about the volcanic island of Krakatoabetween Java and Sumatra and when the islandexploded in 1883, killing around 40,000 peopleand then disappeared from the face of theearth. “Oddities about the natural world fasci-nate me. Did you know that when Krakatoaexploded, in the resulting tsunami the seareceded more than a mile in Bombay?”It’s that boyish sense of adventure and won-

derment coupled with his mastery over the all-encompassing craft of the novel which makes

the 54-year-old Ghosh such a profoundly excit-ing writer. In a sense, the ‘Ibis’ trilogy, with itsships, its sense of changing space, new landsand people from various places of the worldmimic the world of a science fiction spaceopera. “That’s an interesting comparison actual-ly,” says the winner of the 1997 Arthur C ClarkeAward for his novel The Calcutta Chromosome,the next evening as he pours a second glass ofwhisky. His hotel suite, with the sunken pool inthe next room, I note, vaguely resembles the setfrom 2001: A Space Odyssey, which in a way fitsperfectly with his continuing saga of a spaceand time journey into the 19th century. Thethought of the white-haired, never-ageing novel-ist as a time-travelling, shape-shifting aliencrosses my mind briefly.

ihazra@hindustantimes.com

THE WAY STORIESWERE CONSTRUCTED INHINDI CINEMA HAD ANIMPORTANT EFFECT ON ME

COVER STORY

PHOTO: RAJ K RAJ

CHANCES ARE that you arereading this either whileplanning a holiday, enjoyinga break, or recovering from

the rigours of a family vacation. Yes,this is the holiday season, when every-one who can afford it gets away fromthe heat as fast as they possibly can.And these days we are all spoilt for

choice, aren’twe?Wecanhit thebeach-es of Goa orKoh Samui, depending onour budget. We can enjoy the moun-tain air in Manali, Shimla or evenSwitzerland, if our money stretchesthat far.We can trek inNepal; go shop-ping in Dubai; watch plays in London;golf in Scotland; sample the best ofRenaissance art in Italy; indulge in abit of wine-tasting in France or theNapaValley; gorge – or gag, it dependsentirely on you – on authentic Chinesefare in Shanghai or Beijing.As far asholidays are concerned, the

sky (and of course, our bank balance)is the limit.Andeven then, there’s noth-ingweenjoymore thanpushing the lim-its. A week spent river-rafting in thewilds of aSouthAmerican jungle?Bringit on. A fortnight in the icy wildernessof Greenland getting in touch with ourinner Inuit?Why ever not?Walking upthe slopes of active volcanoes in NewZealand? Count us in.These days, everyonewants to push

the envelopewhen it comes to holidays.It’s no longer enough to go tiger-watching in Ranthambore, Pench orBandhavgarh. Youhave to go on a safari inAfrica or better still, watchfrom the sidelineswhen the annualmigration ofwildebeest takes placein Kenya. Chilling out on the beaches of Kovalam is now passé. Thesedays youmust headout toCroatia, thenew jewel of theMediterranean.AndNainital and Darjeeling are now spoilt beyond belief; if you wantto enjoy the mountains then Ladakh is where it’s at.It sounds great doesn’t it? After all, who would pass up the oppor-

tunity to see the world in all its glory, sample the delights – both culi-nary and cultural – it has to offer, and explore every nook and cran-ny of our beautiful planet. Ifwe live in a global village, then I guessit behooves us to get acquaintedwith all its secret gardens. Andgreat fun it is too.Andyet, evenas I scour the Internet looking for thebest dealson hotels and airline fares, there is a tiny little part of methat misses the good old days when holidays were moreabout family time and less about seeing the world. When

wespent our vacationsbondingwith assorteduncles, aunts,nieces, nephews and a veritable army of cousins rather than

discovering the delights of gelato or the finer points of bull-fighting.When taking a break didn’t necessarily involve breaking the bank.Growing up, I spent all my school vacations visiting various mem-

bers of our extended – and, to be honest, fairly extensive – family. The

summers were invariably spent atmy aunt’s tea garden inAssam.Andthe holiday started from the timeweboarded the train fromSealdah sta-tion,mearmedwith a stack ofAmarChitra Kathas and my mother witha lot of patience. Snack-time camewith every station we stopped at,with deep-fried samosas and pako-ras being scoffed down with hot,milky tea drunk from terracottabhands (yes, I know, it sounds a bitvulgar, but it just means a tea-cup).The high point of the journey was

the ferry transfer across theBrahmaputra, which put all thosegeography lessons inperspective.Andthen, there was the rickety jeep-rideto the tea garden itself, with us inde-fatigablekidssinging loudlyandI fearquite tunelessly in the backwhile theadults struggled to stay upright onthose long and winding roads.And then followed a few weeks of

absolute bliss, when you never need-ed to do anything you didn’t want to.There were no mandatory earlymornings to catch the sunrise on thebeach; no traipsing aroundmuseumsfeigning interest in the Dutch mas-ters anddinosaurmodels; no endless

shopping trips for our moms to drag us on. Instead, my assortedcousins and I ran quite wild: going on long exploratory walks on thetea slopes; examining the wildlife in the area (mostly frogs and leech-es, if you must know); starting our own Enid Blyton-style Five Find-Outers gang;making friendswith the kids in the local village; and gen-erally, having a blast.In the winters, we headed north to visit more uncles and aunts. It

helped, of course, that my uncles were in the army and hence couldhost us in a different city every three years or so. Thus it was that wesampled the delights of Southern temples, splashed around on therocky beaches ofVisakhapatnam, explored a yet-unspoilt Bhutan, vis-ited endless forts and palaces in Rajasthan and made ourselves athome in armymesses all around the country. All of this, leavenedwithlots of inter-generation bonding, andmuch re-telling of old family lore.Even today, when I have traversed every continent inmy travels, it

is those family holidays that evoke themost heart-feltmemories. Andit is the family bonds forged on those vacations that provide me withthe most emotional sustenance.So, in case you haven’t booked thatmini-break in Bangkok just yet,

you might want to examine the possibility of a family vacation. Yourkids may baulk at it now; but they may well thank you for it in theyears to come.

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

SeemaGoswami

HINDUSTAN TIMES SUNDAY MAGAZINE JUNE 26, 2011

Travel the world if youwant to; but don’t knock

the humble ‘family holiday’

16

spec

tator

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PUSHING THE LIMITSAs far as holidays are concerned, the sky is the limit. Walking up the

slopes of active volcanoes in New Zealand? Count us in

NATURE’S COMPANYThe summers were invariably spent at my

aunt’s tea garden in Assam

IT’S NO LONGER ENOUGHTO GO TIGER-WATCHING IN

RANTHAMBORE, BANDHAVGARHOR PENCH. YOU HAVE TO GO ON

A SAFARI IN AFRICA

Taking ABreak?

PHOT

OS:THINK

STOC

K

DOWHATEVERGorge – or gag, itdepends entirely onyou – on authenticChinese fare in

Shanghai or Beijing

Vir Sanghvi

rudedrin

k IWROTE SOME weeks ago about the practice of up-sellingwines – that is, of restaurants pressuring you to buy moreexpensive wines than you had originally intended to drink –and cheating guests on wine pricing.

Sogreat has the flood of responses to that piece been that I decid-ed not to answer all the questions I was asked individually but tocombine them into a single piece. Here are answers to the most-frequently asked questions.When ordering awine should I care about the grape?Well, yes andno.Thegrape is oneof themost important constituentsof a wine and each grape has distinguishing characteristics: theinkiness of Cabernet Sauvignon; the fleshiness of Merlot; the silk-iness of Pinot Noir; etc.But the emphasis on grapes is a relatively recent phenomenon

encouraged by wine-makers from the NewWorld. In France, theydon’t like naming the grape variety on the bottle. They take the linethatwine is an expression of terroir. InBurgundy, for instance, theysay that Pinot Noir was first selected thousands of years ago bytheRomans because it best absorbed the influences of the soil, theweather and the barrel. In that sense, the grape is no more than atranslation of the soil.This sounds like bunk but you have to only travel from village to

village in Burgundy to discover how the same grape (Chardonnayor Pinot Noir) yields completely different wines in vineyards thatare only a few miles away.My own view is that grapes matter in the case of New World

wines but can be an irrelevance in France or Italy.How important is the vintage?It can be very important. The same vineyard can yield greatwinesand mediocre wines, depending on the year. On the other hand,vintage matters less and less in warm weather countries and inplaces where wine is an industrial product (some American,Australian and South American wines fall in this category). Thegeneral rule is that cold weather countries (France, for instance)producewines that varymore fromyear to year thanwarmweath-er areas (California).Where vintage does make a difference, however, is price. If you

are ordering a 1995 Bordeaux and they give you a 2009, then youhave a right to complain. Some vintages are more expensive than

others and frequently restaurantswill charge you for an expensivevintage and then substitute a cheaper one.Also remember that somewines, redBordeaux for instance, take

at least five years to show their hand and should not be orderedwhen they are young.Should I return a bottle of wine?Not if you just don’t like it. If you ordered it, you are obliged to payfor it unless the wine is spoilt.But spoilage occurs frequently because of poor storage andother

factors. There was a time when it was impossible to order whiteBurgundy in India because the spoilage factor was 50 per cent. Inthose cases, always send the wine back. It may take you a while tobe able to detect a wine that is corked or spoilt but once you havesome experience, it is easy enough. Your nose will tell you when awine smells like moist cardboard and is corked.Do waiters take bottles back? It varies. Last month I had a bot-

tle of an obviously corked, very expensive wine at Beaumaniere,themost famous restaurant inProvence.Thoughmyhostwas fromthe wine trade and knew what he was talking about, the sommeli-

HINDUSTAN TIMES SUNDAY MAGAZINE JUNE 26, 201118

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Wine SecretsUncorkedFrom the right taste to the right price,

here are answers to the mostfrequently asked questions about wine

UNDRINKABLESpoilage occurs

frequently because ofpoor storage and other

factors

NOT WORTH ITHotel wine lists contain many expensive wines from Bordeaux that nobody

orders (Petrus, Lafite, etc.) but rarely feature good, drinkable winesPH

OTOS

:REU

TERS

er said thewinewas fine and charged us for it anyway. If it can hap-pen at Beaumaniere, it can happen anywhere.Do restaurants charge toomuch forwine?In aword; yes. Any hotel or restaurantwith foreign exchange earn-ings can order wine free of customs duty. But state taxes can beridiculously high. Even so, hotels levy absurd mark-ups. One wayof checking is to compare the price of a wine at a five-star hotelwhich has imported it duty-free with the price of the samewine ata stand-alone that does not get duty exemption. In almost everycase, the wine will be cheaper at the stand-alone even though therestaurant has paid more to buy it.Years ago, when I was editor of the HT, we ran a campaign in

HT City (then edited by Sourish Bhattacharya) examining howmuch difference there was in the price of the same wine depend-ing on where you drank it. I am pretty sure that were we to con-duct the same exercise again, the results would be the same.

How do I know that I am getting good value for my wineat a restaurant?Well, frankly, unless you are part of the wine trade, you don’t. Butsome general rules may help. The mark-ups on expensive winesare lower than themark-ups on cheapwines. So, in the case ofwineat least, more is less.The so-called house wine – the one they offer to sell you by the

glass – can be dire at many restaurants. They choose wines thatthey can buy cheap and often they open the bottle many days inadvance, store it badly and serve you the wine when it is spoilt. Sobe careful about ordering wine by the glass.Remember that in the Indianmarket at least, California is over-

priced and Bordeaux prices can be a joke. Hotel wine lists containmany expensivewines fromBordeaux that nobody orders (Petrus,Lafite, etc.) but rarely feature good, drinkable wines. Instead, theyrely on meaningless brand names (the Rothschild brand meansnothing unless you are drinking a first growth).The best value in cheap wines is Chile. For middle range wines,

it is Australia or New Zealand. And for expensive wines, it is Italyor Burgundy.Should I order Indianwine?Oh dear, I was hoping you wouldn’t ask that. I was an early cham-pion of Indianwines andnow that there is awine boom in the coun-try, I should be more encouraging.Buthere’smyproblem. I findacomplete lackofconsistency inmost

Indian wines. The great brands tend to bottle rubbish. The ‘cham-pagne’ tastes like cat’s piss. And there is more hype than quality.That said, I’ve drunk some very good Indianwines and I am told

that things are getting better. As of now, however, I amstill not con-fident enough to make blanket recommendations. Besides, Indianwine is not particularly cheap, at least on restaurantmenus. Eitherthe quality improves or the price comes down before I start rec-ommending it.I lovewine. But can I get it at home?Only with some difficulty. In theory, you can buy wine at shops inour big cities. But the range is not great and in my limited experi-ence, I have found that the wine is not always stored properly andcan be spoilt as a consequence.And yet, if wine drinking is to take off in India then we should

be able to drink goodwine at home.My friend,Dharti Desai of FineWines and More, is that rare phenomenon: a wine merchant whopays as much attention to the retail market as she does to therestaurant sector. FineWines andMore has some innovativewine-selling ideas (including a hugely successful service for AmericanExpress card-holders).But despite the excellence ofmany of thewines on offer, the sec-

tor is young, the laws are complicated, excise officials are corrupt,retail spaces are limited and it will be a while before you and I canwander into a shop and buy the sorts of wines we can order atrestaurants.

DIFFERENT TASTESCold weather countries, France, for instance produce wines that vary more

from year to year

IT’S DIFFERENTEach grape has distinguishingcharacteristics: for example, thefleshiness of Merlot (above)

HIGH MAINTENANCEThere was a time when it wasimpossible to order white

Burgundy in India because thespoilage factor was 50 per cent

VINTAGE VALUEIf you are ordering a 1995

Bordeaux (above) and they giveyou a 2009, then you have a

right to complain

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IN THEORY YOU CAN BUY WINE AT SHOPS IN OUR BIG CITIES. BUT THERANGE IS NOT GREAT AND THE WINE IS NOT ALWAYS STORED PROPERLY

JUNE 26, 2011HINDUSTAN TIMES SUNDAY MAGAZINE

NO THANKSThe so-called house wine – the one they offer to sell you by the glass –

can be dire at many restaurants

19

PHOTOS: REUTERS

PHOTOS: THINKSTOCK

Rajiv Makhni

ITHAS changed the world; it has creatively challenged everyform ofmedia; it dispenses news and information faster thanany othermedia; it has been the backbone of revolutions andsocial change across theworld; it has spawned a newculture;

it is a great leveller; it has bridged the gap between celebrities andfans; it’s... well, it’s a long list of greats. Yet, with all this jawdropping stuff that the 140 character revolution has archived,Twitter does have some truly gut-wrenching irritants.Let’s start from the basics. The abuse of Twitter by people who

use it in ways no other human can endure.To theForeverStatusUpdater:Dowe really need to knowwhenyou got up, what you’re feelingevery 10minutes, yourgoalfor the day, your to-do list,what youate, a photo of every-thing you ate, howyou’re driv-ing and tweeting (!!), what songyou’re listening to, a shortened url of that songon YouTube (!!), where you are now, where you werebefore,where you’re going to be in thenext 10min-utes? Stop!We get that you’re with it and cooland also great at fiction-writing and haveinvented a life that doesn’t exist.TotheNewCrapLanguage Inventor:Yes, Twitter restricts you to 140 char-acters and yes, it is sometimes toughto express yourself in that manywords. But do youhave to pulverisethe language to little bits andpieces,use slang and abbreviations to thepoint of insanity and add acronymsand phonetics that make no senseto anybodybut to yourself?Nowon-der you have just five followers –nobodyunderstandswhatyou’vebeentweeting for the last one year!Uhvgt2stprgnw.To the #Hashtag Army: Agreed, hash-tags are a powerful way of making some-thing trend, to get people unified on a singletopic, to make a point that the world is with you,to bring people together, to start a movement anda revolution. But could you desist from puttinghashtags to complete nonsense, using ahashtag on four words in a single sen-tence, using it with words like #justsay-ingand#meloves and#itsraining? Itwillnever trend, the world isn’t with you onthat, it doesn’tmakeyour tweet lookcool-er and yes, you do look and read like a fool. #youhavebeenwarned.To the Blow Your own Trumpeteer: Come on, it’s Twitter, not ajob application or a CV depository. Could you tone down yourdigital profile to earth-terms and not fly in the stratosphere? Getoff the poetic route, erase those lofty claims and stopmaking your-self sound like the second coming of Christ. No, you don’t have somany interests and you most certainly haven’t achieved so much.Also, those moody little philosophies of life and the little pieces ofdark brooding advice you’re giving everyone in your profile – nope,

not the right platform. An introduction, where you are from and afactual sentence or two about yourself is good enough. Let yourtweets do the rest of the magic.To the One-Way Celebrity:We know it feels good, we know it’s aratification of your power and your fan base and we know thathaving ‘followers’ in millions is just such a warm and fuzzy feeling.But canyou treat themwith somerespect?Don’t start tweetingonlywhen you have a new movie or a book or a TV show (guilty). Don’ttreat it as a one-way broadcast street. Engage, interact and reply tosome of the people going gaga over your spelling mistake-ridden,terribly formatted, grammatically incorrect tweet. And don’t disap-

pear forever off Twitter and still givepress interviews about how much

you love the fact thatyou’vegotthe sweetest followers who’vehelped you cross the 10 millionmark.

To the Social Media Guru:Look, youmaybeaconsultantto the topcompanies, youmaybe God in front of your little

bandof fourpeopleathomeandyoumaywell be thegreatest thing

since sliced silicon inyourowneyes.Could you not dispense wisdom,advice and instructions in thatrudeandverystand-offishman-ner? Don’t tell people how totweet, don’t correct them,don’tbe the spelling police, don’t betheTwitter-usagemafia, don’tguideanyoneandsendouthow-to lists, don’tbeBigBrotheranddon’t sermoniseandcriticiseoneandall. Youmayknowyour stuff(I doubt that) but when you do

what you do, you sound like a jack-ass on Twitter.There are lots of other characters

and characteristics on Twitter that uni-versally cheese everybody off. RTing some-

body’s tweet and cutting the original person out,using Capital Letters and shouting everybody

out, abusing the Direct Message privi-lege and using it for marketing or self-promotion, keeping a running score ofwhoyouunfollowedandbroadcasting it,using seriously abusive words in orderto sound cooler than the rest, begging

and imploring to be followed, ditto for asking for your tweet to beretweeted, name dropping, continuously reposting your tweets inthe hope that more people respond and react and spending everywaking hour on Twitter... it’s as silly and as embarrassing as it is inreal life. You’ve got to have a real life to sound like youhave anamaz-ing life, even on Twitter. #justsaying :)

Rajiv Makhni is managing editor, Technology, NDTV and the anchor ofGadget Guru, Cell Guru and Newsnet 3. Follow Rajiv on Twitter at

twitter.com/RajivMakhni

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Being A Twit: A SociallyIrritable Tale

Dear dorks on Twitter: here is an open letter just for you. #havefun

tech

ilicious

JUNE 26 2011HINDUSTAN TIMES SUNDAY MAGAZINE20

HASHTAGS ARE GREAT,BUT THEY DON’T MAKEYOUR TWEET LOOK COOL

IMAGING: ASHISH SINGH

YOUAREunlikely to finda rockmusicianwhoworkshard-er than Warren Haynes. The 51-year-old lead guitaristand singer works in three bands – Gov’t Mule, which hefronts, The Allman Brothers Band where he plays the

lead guitar along with Derek Trucks, his own solo projects, as wellas occasional stints with Phil Lesh & Friends. How the manmanages to do all of that for outfits that tour like maniacs – mostof these bands mainly play live gigs (sometimes more than a 100shows a year) and record very few studio albums – is amystery. YetHaynes,whowas featured atNo. 23 onRolling Stone’s 100GreatestGuitarists ofAll Time, powers on, shuffling his dates betweenbandsand, as he did recently,makes time to record studio albums aswell.If you’ve seenHaynes performorheard recordings, youwill know

how intense and solid he makes his guitar sound and howblessedly soul-filled his voice sounds. Inspired equally by the raw,unpolished blues of legends like Muddy Waters, Howlin’ Wolf andElmore James, as also by heavy 1970s rock bands, Haynes is acontemporary purveyor of blues-rock. To add to all of this, there isa southern jam-band twist to his playing.So when Haynes released his much-awaited latest solo studio

effort, his first since 1993, Man In Motion (aptly named, I thought,for a guitarist who is constantly touring), I couldn’t wait to get myhands on it. I had just heard last November’s Another One ForWoody (an annual gig by Gov’t Mule in New York, which is stagedin memory of the late Allen Woody, former bassist for the Mule)and the nearly two-hour concert had some Mule staples, such asSoulshine and Banks of The Deep End, but also a fabulous coverversion of The Beatles’ Dear Prudence (a 10-minute plus version,actually!). My apologies for this digression, but at that same gigthere were sets by The Allman Brothers Band and a really goodone by the North Mississippi Allstars (fronted by the talented duoof Luther and Cody Dickinson) but perhaps I should gush aboutthem on another Sunday.When I finally got listening to Man In Motion, I found it to be a

mellow, soulful album in which Haynes returns to the roots ofold-fashioned blues and R&B. Haynes had a couple of well-knownNewOrleansmusiciansworkingwith him –Meters’ bassist, GeorgePorterJr, keyboardist IvanNeville anddrummerRaymondWebber– andthatmakesahugedifference.ManInMotionis an example of how versatile the itinerant guitarist is.His gigswith theMuleor theAllmanBrotherscanberockand blues-infused extrava-ganzas but he evidently hasa subdued side as this albumshows.

IFIRST HEARD MyMorning Jacket whensomeone pointed meto 2006’sOkonokos. It

was a two-disc live stunnerthatmademean instant fanof theKentucky-basedband.They were nothing like anyother southern rock bandthat I’d heard. The reverb-laden guitar, frontman Jim

James’swails andhowls andasound that can be best des-cribedassoul fleckedwithpsy-chedelia, were unique. Theproblem started when I began looking for more MMJ records –studio efforts suchasAtDawn (2001), It StillMoves (2003), Z (2005)andEvilUrges (2008).Zwasan instanthitwithme, the soundsynth-laden and spacey and while all the others were nice, I kept goingback toOkonokos, the live albumthathadmademea fanof theband.Like many bands, they were best heard at gigs, I said to myself.Till I got this year’s Circuital; actually, I heard the title track off a

podcast and it transported me back to the first time I heard JimJames off Okonokos. Just asHaynes is what Gov’tMule is all about,James isMMJ.Hisdramatic vocal style iswhatmakes thebandwhatit is. Pretty much like Haynes’ guitar makes Gov’t Mule what it is.Circuital has got rave reviews frommany critics, who’ve mostly

said it’s a return to their roots by MMJ. I don’t agree. Circuital isan evolution by the band. It’s a step forward, highly listenable, veryMMJ-like and closest to any of the band’s live recordings. Circuitalhas a strong whiff of the live energy that the band is gifted with.And it may also be a step towards more studio albums that willsound as good as the live ones. On their 2008 studio album (EvilUrges), I’d not really liked James’s new-found falsetto ona few tracksbut this time round, he’s used it very sparingly. Itworks. OnHoldin’Onto BlackMetal – a spirited song that I’m still trying to interpret(is it a parody or amock caution against continuing as a blackmetaladdict?) – his falsetto fits in perfectly. As perfectly as the two newalbums fitted into last week for me.

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

follow argus48 on Twitter or visit our website: www.hindustantimes.com/brunch

Sanjoy NarayanLIKE IT IS

Guitarist Warren Haynes (above)makes his guitar sound intenseand solid. Man In Motion (right) ishis first studio album since 1993

indulge live | sip | play | listen

Two For JoyTwo favourite musicians release twonew albums. Could you ask for more?

download

central

IN THOSE DAYSJim James’s soulful howlsin Circuital, My Morning

Jacket’s latest, took me backto the time I first heard him

HINDUSTAN TIMES SUNDAY MAGAZINE JUNE 26, 2011 21

PHOTO: REUTERS

The lung is the site forkapha, and most of theupper respiratory infec-tions are due to toomuch of kapha. For heal-ing from such infections thefood should be pitta in taasirand have drying properties.One must keep the followingpoints in mind:Avoid kapha foods like rice,

banana, cold drinks, maida,fried foods, butter, lassi and pa-neerSoups which contain the fol-

lowing ingredients should be

consumed regularlythroughout the dayBlack pepper - Itreduces phlegm,and dries infections

Turmeric - It reducesinfection and helps

in healingGinger - It dries thesecretions and is anatural antibioticOne should inhale

steam which containsneem and tulsiNutrition - High pro-tein foods with low fat

like pulses (mung, lobhia, chan-na), black channa soup, soya,corn in boiled form should beeaten as they effectively drylungs after pneumonia. Fruitslike pomegranate, apple, sweetlime (mosambi) also help asthey provide adequate protein

for tissue repair. Zincand vitamin C are re-quired for regenerationas well.

While recovering from fevers,the most important aspects arefluid replenishment and liverstrengthening. So, it’s essentialto have foods rich in vitamin Cand electrolytes.

Coconut water- It provideselectrolytes andnatural sugarNimbu paani

- One must have it with brownsugar and rock saltSweet lime - Fresh juiceBarley wwaatteerr -- Have barleybroth khichri made with rice andmung dalAvoid dairy products - Non-vegetarian foods, processedfoods and dry foods like corn,besan, phool-makhana (lotusseeds) should not be had.

MOST PEOPLE understand that nutri-tion is important for growth duringchildhood and for providing strength.At the other end of the spectrum lies

dieting for weight loss. In between these twozones lies an area of great importance which isfrequently forgotten. And that is nutrition forhealing. In other words – correct nutrition torecover from illnesses. Once, nutrition was a partand parcel of the science of healing and doctorswould explain in detail about the correct diet tobe consumed during the process of healing inorder to ensure complete recovery.Food and nutrition form the basis of the devel-

opment and regeneration of the body and if thenutrition is adequate, the body has the capacityand ability to heal itself faster and regain its loststrength.Conversely, if the nutrition is deficient or inade-

quate, the body takes a lot of time to heal and attimes even falls prey to other illnesses.Today medicine and nutrition have separated

to quite an extent and while medicine has pro-gressed very fast, the science of nutrition for heal-ing has failed to progress to that level.As a result, in most cases the patient is left to

his own devices to find the correct nutrition forhealing, post illness. There are different nutrition-al requirements in different kinds of illnesses foroptimum recovery. And they fall in these broadcategories:

Fractures and post surgical healingRecovery from upper respiratory tract

infections (throat, cold, cough, lungs)Recovery from liver and digestive problemsRecovery from fevers and post fever

weakness

PHOTO: THINKSTOCK

Eat well,healfaster

RECOVERY FROM UPPER RESPIRATORY TRACT INFECTIONS(THROAT, COLD, COUGH, LUNGS)

When recuperating from anillness, remember that foodhelps in healing as much as

medicines doby Dr Shikha Sharma

Wellness

22 JUNE 26, 2011HINDUSTAN TIMES SUNDAY MAGAZINE

RECOVERY FROM FEVERS

FEVER BEATERSweet lime and coconut water replenish and

build strength post a fever

COOL DRUGMedicines play their part but right nutrition

helps a lot in recovering faster

DRY DOSETurmeric and pepper helpin drying out infections

PHOTO: MCT

PHOT

O:MCT

PHOTO: THINKSTOCK

The liver is the seat of metabo-lism and also detoxification of

the body. It is not only responsiblefor transforming the ingested food into energy butfor providing components for tissue repair andgeneration as well. If the liver falls ill it needs cer-

tain components for healing. Especially in thecritical stage, there are certain foods and herbs

which are important:Electrolytes - To replenish elec-

trolytes, the best combi-nation to try is brown sug-ar and rock salt, with a de-coction of saunfHealing fluids - Turmericdecoction for infections,ginger decoction for im-proving liver function anddigestion and peppermintfor gas are usefulAlkaline foods - The liv-er, due to its functions,ends up collecting a lot oftoxins. To cleanse it, oneneeds to have counterbal-ancing foods, which by na-ture are alkaline and cool the liver down. And theyare:Aloe vera juice - It provides cooling and detoxifi-cationAmla - A rich source of vitamin C, it helps in tissuerepairB complex - It’s very important for replenishingthe metabolic raw material. In the deficiency of Bcomplex, liver metabolism also suffers. Sources ofB complex include fruits and whole grains.

Dr Shikha Sharma is aregular Brunch colum-nist and a well-knownwellness consultant. Youcan contact her atask@drshikha.com

SHIKHASHARMA

Let’s take a typical case of thefracture. While in hospital thebones are aligned so that theytouch each other. This alignmentis held together by a cast or bysteel rods. However, the actualhealing is a chain of processeswhich begins the moment the in-jury takes place. First the bodycreates clots to prevent too muchblood loss, then the body bringsall the healing components or“stuff” at the point of injury to aidthe tissues to heal. And finally thebones themselves begin to gener-ate cells which multiply and join orreconstruct the bone.This absolutely amazing power ofthe body is assisted in part bynutrition. The body requires thebasic nutritive components to aidin the repair and healing process.Typically the body may use thefollowing components (besidesseveral other things):Calcium - It is very essential inbone healing and repair as itmaintains the blood acid basebalance. It is equally important fordiabetics for glucose transport. Italso provides a basic structure tothe bone.TO MAKE UP FORCOMMON DEFICIENCIESPotassium - It’s required tomaintain the acid - base balanceand also to ensure effective andtimely clotting ofthe blood. It alsohelps in formingthe boneZinc - It is one

of the most important mineralsand is useful in skin healing andregeneration. Many popular andsuccessful brands of medicinalointments contain zinc for fasterrecovery. It is also essential formaintaining fertility.Vitamin E - Vitamin E is impor-tant for tissue repair and healing,Its main sources are almonds andflaxseed.Vitamin D - It is activated bysunlight (a good reason to dosuryanamaskar in the morning)Vitamin C - It’s important for skinhealing and also essential as ithelps the immune cells which arethe soldiers who fight and eat upthe deadly viruses and bacteria inthe body. It is also required for tis-sue healing and collagen rebuilding.Chromium - Another mineralwhich is important for faster heal-ing in diabetics. It has been seenthat diabetics who have poor in-sulin function are also deficient inchromium.Vitamin B12 - This is a very in-

teresting andimportant vita-min, as it helpsthe nervous sys-tem. In severalcases of chronicfatigue syn-drome, chroniclistlessness anddepressive feel-ing, it has been

seen that supple-mentation with Vita-min B 12 helps in a ma-jor way to give relieffrom the symp-toms and providerelief.Vitamin A- Thisvitamin being theprecursor to im-portant vitamins isvery essential forskin healing and re-generation. Severalmedicated skinointments containvitamin A.Protein - Proteinsupplementation isneeded for post sur-gical healing in cas-es of bone injuries,muscle injuries andpost partum nutrition.The quality and quanti-ty of protein needs tobe balanced in orderto provide optimal nu-trition whilst avoidingprotein overload onthe liver. Post surgicalnutrition is a sciencewhich has not been ex-plored enough. Its benefitsare immense and it needsto be explored moreso that the recov-ery of patientsis faster.

FRACTURES ANDPOST-SURGICALHEALING

BONE BUILDINGFoods like almondsand flaxseed aid intissue repair by

providing vitamin E

SOAKING THE SUNExercises like Suryanamaskar are very helpful in recovering from a

fracture especially when performed in the light of the sun

HERBAL DETOXJuices of aloe vera andamla assist in cooling ofliver post inflammation

RECOVERY FROM LIVER ANDDIGESTIVE PROBLEMS,INFECTIONS ETC

PHOT

O:AJAY

AGGA

RWAL

PHOT

O:MCT

PHOTO: MCT

PHOTO: THINKSTOCK

PHOT

O:TH

INKS

TOCK

PHOTO: THINKSTOCK

REMEMBER YOUR grandmother nar-rating stories from the Arabian Nights?Her raised eyebrows when the evil khal-ifa, yet again, kills his young wife, her

victorious smile when the earnest king wins overhis cousin and her eyes widening in shock whenshe told of the giant roc made those tales a pleas-ure to listen to. Her theatrics were what madethemmemorable.

Storytelling is a performance art, just likedance, opera and music. It thrives on an audiencethat needs to be entertained. And according tohistorian, theatre actor and author MahmoodFarooqui (who also co-directed and did the cast-ing for the movie Peepli Live with his wife AnushaRizvi), “It is the most expressiveand challenging of all perform-ance arts. Text is illustratedthrough gestures, facial expres-sions and voice modulation. It isan expansive medium. You areplaying to lots of people as a sto-ryteller.”And it is this passion for per-

formance that led Farooqui,along with fellow dastango (sto-ryteller) and actor Danish Husain, to revive thelost tradition of Urdu storytelling, dastangoi, afew years ago.

THE LOST ARTDastan means story and dastangoi means to tell astory. It is a unique form of Urdu storytelling thatuses no musical instruments, no props or othervisual stimuli. Only the story is told. The traditionwas very popular during the Mughal era andAkbar was known to patron dastangos in hiscourt. The stories were about magic and sorcer-ers. While the traditional storytellers of theMughal era innovated and improvised storiesdepending on their audience, Farooqui andHusain, the dastangos of today, mainly re-tellthose tales. “We usually perform chapters fromDastan-e-Amir Hamza,” says Farooqui. “Though

there are many dastans, this was the most popu-lar. Based on the legends of the valour of theprophet Muhammad’s uncle, Amir Hamza, thetext tells the tale of the fictional Hamza and hisexploits.”Dastangoi remained popular till the early 20th

century. Dastangos would recite stories in publicsquares and on the steps of Jama Masjid in OldDelhi. But then, in the 1920s, the art just van-ished. And Farooqui only came across it in 2002.“That’s when I had my first encounter with the

Dastan-e-Amir Hamza,” he says. “Although I hadbeen an avid reader of Urdu fiction and had evenformally studied it for my M Phil dissertation, Ihad never actually read a dastan. That year, SR

Faruqi, the leading scholar of theform, askedme to help somebodywhowas interested inmaking afilm on dastangoi. Though the filmwas nevermade, I read the firstvolume of his marvellous study ofthe Dastan-e-Amir Hamza.”Farooqui became a Sarai fellow

that year, intending to collectmaterial for a documentary onthe tradition. Today, the dastan-

gos are toying with the idea of incorporating newerlanguages into the form, so that it reaches a wideraudience. And also tell stories from theUrduMahabharata and Ramayan.

CHARMING NOTESIn 2005, Farooqui did his first show at the IndiaInternational Centre in Delhi. He was apprehen-sive about the reception, considering not manypeople understand Urdu. “We first performed thestory Tilism-e-Hoshruba (Hamza pursues Laqawho takes refuge in the enchanted kingdom ofHoshruba. The story talks about how Hamza’sgrandson fights sorcery and magical snares toconquer Hoshruba), the best known chapter ofthe Dastan-e-Amir Hamza. The crowd mostlyconsisted of Urdu scholars and journalists. Theyunderstood the language and the performance

was applauded. But the real test was when I per-formed solo to a non-Urdu and even non-Hindispeaking audience. People loved it and respondedto the twists, the turns and the way the storiesare narrated, the expressions, the drama,” saysFarooqui.Since then, the group has done over 130 shows

and has performed at college festivals in Delhi,the Jaipur Literary Festival, Karachi, New York,Prithvi Theatre, Mumbai and smaller towns like

... tales were told by professionalstrained in the art. Lend your earsto storytellers Mahmood Farooquiand Danish Husain who take you

back to that eraby Parul Khanna Tewari

24 JUNE 26, 2011HINDUSTAN TIMES SUNDAY MAGAZINE

The Adventures ofAmir Hamza or theDastan-e-AmirHamza narratesthe legendaryexploits of AmirHamza, the uncleof the prophet ofIslam. The storiesare supposed tobe told throughperformances. The

book was compiled more than 1,000 yearsago, probably in Persia, and its storiesspread through the Islamic world. In 1562,Akbar commissioned a manuscript of AmirHamza which became a favourite text fordastangos. The stories create a world of se-duction, imagery, secrets and fantasy.They’re quite similar to Bollywood potboil-ers: formulaic, with heroes vanquishingvillains and demons. They’re also veryfunny, shift from one location to another,and have sorcery, magic and battles.

The Adventures Of

AKBAR WASKNOWN TOPATRONISE

DASTANGOS INHIS COURT

Variety

TELLING TALESProfessional storytellers Mahmood Farooqui (right) and

Danish Husain (left) at a performance, in costume

AMIR HAMZA

PHOTO: RANGA SHANKARA, BANGALORE

Aligarh, Patna. Even on the banks of the Ganga inAllahabad, with doped sadhus as an audience.In spite of possible language problems, people

return again and again to see the shows, claim theduo. “Even foreigners enjoy the dastans,” saysFarooqui. “It is the pleasure of listening and theanticipation of what will happen that captivatesthe audience.”It’s likely too, that storytelling in this manner is

a big change from all the visual stimuli people areused to now. “It’s a rarity for people to listen, forma picture and use their imagination. And that iswhat stories get them to do,” says Farooqui.Also, listening to old texts is a delight because

of the sheer richness of the language and content,says Danish Husain. “Once you hear the stories,you will be taken with the language. Good lan-guage attracts people.”

CONTEMPORARY TALESThe moment they found an audience

for dastangoi, the art was contemporised,says Farooqui. The dastangois did nothave to fiddle with the basic stories. Butwhat they did was take up new issues

and write stories aroundthem. At a recent per-formance, the grouptold a story on parti-tion and another on

Binayak Sen. Now they’re working on a storybased on the works of Rabindranath Tagore forRabindrotsav, a Tagore festival in Kolkata.“We have also been approached to do a story

on Gandhi and another one on our nuclearplants,” says Husain. Even as new stories arebeing added to their repertoire, the dastangoshave changed the form somewhat. Traditionally,only one dastango would perform at a time. Tobreak the monotony and to add drama, Farooquidecided to use two people.But not anyone can be a dastango, even though

Farooqui feels that, to truly revive the form, it isessential to have more dastangos. “Like all per-formance arts, you need to learn storytelling,” hesays. “But unless many more people take up theart, the form itself will not be revived. It will justremain a successful show. The first step inextending its reach is to create new storytellers.”Currently, there are 17 dastangos in India,

including actor Naseeruddin Shah, all trained byFarooqui and Husain.Since so little has been documented about the

actual performance – how the storytellers sat, howmuch they moved around, their individual stylisticquirks, whether they took breaks, how the audi-ence was arranged, whether they sang the poetry

– Farooqui and Husain devisedtheir own performance meth-ods to suit the 21st century.“Traditionally, dastangos

would perform through the night but we put up 90-minute shows,” says Danish. “There is a three-minute audio clip of the last dastango who per-formed in 1920.We’ve referred to that. We focus onour linguistics. We wear white achkans and topisand sit on a white mattress. But we have no evi-dence that this was the proper dress. We supposethis is what they would have worn as achkans werecommon then.”New dastangos will be taught all this and will

also have to learn the art of improvisation toappeal to newer audiences. So what is the duolooking for in a dastango? “Passion for languages,especially Urdu, and a passion for performance,”says Farooqui. “Diction, expressions, voice modu-lation, all can be taught. And, yes women are wel-come,” he adds. “We have a 33 per cent reserva-tion!”To create more dastangos, Farooqui and Husain

need to conduct a series of workshops with aspir-ing performers, give them basic training, handthem some of the texts in a Hindi transliterationand see what they can make of it.“With the emergence of new dastangos, we

might have newer styles, variations in perform-ances and eventually, even newer texts,” saysFarooqui. The essence of the art of dastangos ofold lay in improvised storytelling. They startedwith bare essentials and wove in the colourdepending on the audience, added humour andpoetry in other areas. New dastangos will have tolearn this art too. Apart from giving performanc-es, Mahmood Farooqui and Danish Husain alsoconduct workshops to train people in the nuancesof the art of Urdu storytelling. If you’re interest-ed, go to their blog, dastangoi.blogspot.com.

parul.khanna@hindustantimes.com

Dastangos Danish (left) and Mahmood (right)illustrate the nuances of the art

Dastangoi is a form of Urdu storytelling that usesnomusical instruments, no props or visual stimuli

Text is illustrated through gestures, facialexpressions and voice modulation

The stories have heroes, villains, prettyprincesses, demons, magic, sorcery and battles

Naseeruddin Shahis also a dastango

Curtain RaiserPHOTOS: JASJEET PLAHA

MORE ON WEB■ To see a performance of dastangoi, log on to

hindustantimes.com/dastangoiPHOT

O:LA

FRAN

CESHU

I

26 HINDUSTAN TIMES SUNDAY MAGAZINE JUNE 26, 2011

Naseer read an interview with Mahmood Farooqui aboutdastangoi. When Farooqui and wife Anusha went to Mumbaifor Peepli Live, they met Naseer and Farooqui gave him les-sons in the art. Naseer finally debuted as a dastango at theAsia Society Muslim Voices Festival in New York in 2009.

AT A time of year when Delhiresembles nothing so much asa blazing tandoor, an invitationto visit France seemed nothing

less than a miracle. Paris, I thoughtdreamily. The Eiffel Tower. The muse-ums. The streetside cafés. Ah, Paris.And then I took a closer look at the

invitation. Not Paris (except to passthrough). My invitation was to Chantilly.But where, I wondered, was Chantilly.And what’s so interesting about it?Since few people appeared to know, I

turned to fail-safe Google. Chantilly, Ilearned from several websites, is thehorse racing capital of France. Horse rac-ing was first introduced from England in1830 and today Chantilly still trains about3,000 thoroughbreds in the surroundingforests and countryside. June marks thebeginning of the flat racing season, and itattracts the biggies of European societyfor two historic trophies - the Prix duJockey-Club and Prix de Diane.My invitation was from the watch brand

Longines, the sponsors of the Prix deDiane. So, I was going to watch one of themost prestigious races in the world – andwould also get to meet Aishwarya RaiBachchan, Longines’s brand ambassador.Not a bad reason to get out of Delhi.This was going to be no ordinary trip, I

realised, when I received my itinerary.There, among the details of hotels, flighttimings and so on, were dress codes. Onefor every event I’d be attending. So notonly did I require an evening gown for the

gala dinner, I also needed a hat for thePrix de Diane!Naturally this called for hectic shop-

ping for everything frommatching shoesto accessories, but I finally landed up atthe airport to take the Turkish Airlinesflight to Paris via Istanbul.Grey skies and a chilly breeze wel-

comed us at the Charles De Gaulle air-port in France, setting the mood for thenext few days. A taxi was waiting to takeus to the hotel Tiara Château Hotel MontRoyal in Chantilly. The hotel has a lovelylocation, almost in the middle of a forest.The rooms, done up Victorian style, werecomfortable and offered an excellent viewof the lush green trees all around.And though Chantilly is known for rac-

ing, it also seems to be popular for wed-dings. Or at least, that’s what I gathered,watching the hectic preparations at thehotel for a wedding over the weekend.Makes sense, I thought sleepily, as I head-ed for my room and bed. With the parksand forests we saw on our way in, this is avery romantic place.My first full day in Chantilly was

scheduled to be a long one. A tour ofChâteau de Chantilly during the day, thenthe gala dinner at night.The way to the Château was beautiful –

we drove past open fields, lovely housesand quaint cafés offering a variety of deli-cacies. Nestled in the heart of the town,the Chantilly Domain (home of princes)offers visitors a trip back in time, fromthe Middle Ages to the 19th century. The

guided tour begins with the history ofFrance seen through the lives of theprincely families who occupied Chantilly.It also offers a great insight into the his-tory of French art and architecture asseen in the unique collections of paintingsand books preserved in this Château.Because the area is famous for its lace –Chantilly lace is renowned all over theworld – there are samples preserved inthe Château. Out in the estate, the tourtakes you through the history of land-scape gardening via design traditions ofthe 17th to 19th centuries.The Château also boasts of a restau-

Travel

RACING TimeEvery June, Chantilly in France

takes itself back to the graciousnessof its past, via the sport of kings

by Veenu Singh

A PRIX DEDIANE

WITHOUTTHE LADIES’HATS ISLIKE AJOCKEYWITHOUTHIS CAP

JUNE 26, 2011HINDUSTAN TIMES SUNDAY MAGAZINE28

WINNER ALL THE WAYFrench jockey MartinGuyon, riding GoldenLilac, celebrates afterwinning the 162nd Prixde Diane Longines in

Chantilly

PHOTOS: AFP

A DAY AT THE RACESAishwarya Rai

Bachchan at the Prixde Diane Longines withher mother, Vrinda Rai.Ash, who had done aphoto shoot at the

same racecourse manyyears ago, chose to

wear a peachElie Saab dress with amatching hat. The

satin flowers in the hatwere apparently her

idea

rant called La Capitainerie, which occu-pies the very kitchen run by therenowned Francois Vatel, master stewardfor Louis II de Bourbon-Conde, Prince ofConde, who died in 1686. In addition tothe sumptuous meals that Vatel madeduring his time at Chantilly and his con-tributions to the era of the Grand Conde,he is also credited with creating thefamous Chantilly cream that is still afavourite all over the world.Cultural appreciation over, it was time

to get ready for the gala dinner – whichmeant we’d be going back to the Château.That the evening was going to be exciting

was clearly visible from the way every-body was dressed up. The Châteaulooked beautiful in the evening, bathed ina blue light with a blue carpet welcome(the colour for the Longines brand) foreveryone. It reminded me of star-studdedawards nights where all eyes are on thepeople walking the red carpet.After cocktails in the courtyard, we

went in for a four-course sit-down dinnerin the banquet hall where magnificentdinners must have been held in the past.The evening ended on a high note with aspectacular display of fireworks that leftus spellbound.

Although the next day was a Sunday,there was no question of lazing around.This was the day of the much-awaitedPrix de Diane Longines.More than anything else, I was keen to

check out the wide variety of hats thatapparently are an integral part of theevent. Since the Prix de Diane was creat-ed, a hat has been an essential accessory.And just as at Ascot, eccentricity andextravagance have become the normamongst female race goers. In fact, asChantilly residents say, a Prix de Dianewithout the ladies’ hats is like a jockeywithout his cap!The Prix de Diane, sometimes referred

to as the French Oaks, is a Group 1 flathorse race in France, open to three-year-old thoroughbred fillies only. First run on18 May 1843, it has become a June tradi-tion, covering a distance of 2,100 metres.Since tradition seems to be in charge

for this race, we went to the HippodromeDe Chantilly, the racecourse next to theChâteau de Chantilly in beautiful car-riages. Nearly 40,000 people from all overEurope were gathering to watch theevent: the place looked like one big party.Which, actually, it is.Traditionally (there’s that word again!)

a giant picnic is organised in the centre ofthe Jardins de Diane, surrounded by theracetrack. And a concert is also organ-ised on the central lawn. This year, Coeurde Pirate from Quebec gave an unforget-table performance.Meanwhile Longines’ brand ambassa-

dor Aishwarya Rai Bachchan arrived in acarriage, wearing an Elie Saab dress andmatching hat and acknowledging thecheers of the crowd.After the picnic lunch, the races began

and there was another kind of excitementaltogether, with people betting on andcheering for their favourite jockeys.As the day drew to an end, I sat back,

thought of what a great time I had had…and remembered my time in Chantillywas now over. Well, at least I had a hat forremembrance.

veenus@hindustantimes.com

The writer’s trip to Chantilly was sponsoredby the watch brand Longines

JUNE 26, 2011 29

OH MY HAT!Eccentricity and

extravagance are thenorm at the Prix deDiane Longines

WHAT A FEASTRacegoers enjoy the customary picnic at the

Chantilly racecourse

THE HOME OF PRINCESThe Château de Chantilly offers visitorsa trip back in time, from the Middle Ages

to the 19th century

30 JUNE 26, 2011HINDUSTAN TIMES SUNDAY MAGAZINE

One word that describes you best?Fun.

Love is...Very rare.

What did you do with your firstpay cheque?I bought a flat screen TV and a state-of-the art surround soundmusicsystem.

If a traffic constable hauls you up,what will you do?I would bat my eyelashes and hopethat my charm works on him.

What makes you feel sexy?Victoria’s Secret.

Earth’s crowded and chock full oftrash. Choose another planet.Venus.

If you could have a star perform at yourwedding, who would it be and why?Shah Rukh Khan. The best performerin the world.

A tune you can’t get out your head?The song Jaadugiri from my last filmDil Toh Baccha Hai Ji. I even havethat as my ringtone.

The one law you would break if youcould get away with it?The new drinking age. I’m 23 yearsold right now and I would like to go foran occasional drink or two.

Share a secret with us…you can trustus, we’ll only print it!I dated a guy who looked likeFrankenstein and I loved him.

Your first kiss was...Awkward as hell. Both of us were incollege and had no idea how to do it.

Do you love ‘luv storys’?I adore them. I go for the mushiest ofthe mushiest.

You get high on?I’m a fitness freak and just love myEasy Tone shoes that help tone mylegs the whole day.

Which superhero would you like to beand why?I would love to be this invisible womanwho could spy on what people dobehind closed doors.

The last time you rode on bus...It was for my Telegu film Orange. Forthat we shot on top of an open bus allover Mumbai.

Choose: Air India or Indian Railways?Indian Railways because even ifanything happens, at least I would notbe caught mid-air.

What is the weirdest thing that everwent into your mouth?Frogs legs.

What makes your day?Laughter.

What screws it up?Over-judgemental people.

If you were the last person left onEarth, what would you ?I would try to find a friend as I hatebeing alone

— Interviewed by Veenu Singh

LIFE IN THE FAST FOODLANE: CHOOSE YOURMENUSUBWAYSANDWICHES. IDO MY OWNVARIATIONSAND TAKE AGESOVER THAT

THE LASTMOVIE THATMADE YOU CRY?THE NOTEBOOK.THE STORY OFTHE TWO LOVERSREALLY TOUCHEDMY HEART

A PLACEWHERE YOUWOULDLIKE TO BE LOST FOR AMONTH.THE CARIBBEANISLANDS. THEY ARESO BEAUTIFUL. ICAN EASILY BELOST THEREFOREVER

Her career started with theatre, just like her parents, Alyque Padamsee andSharon Prabhakar. But Shazahn also took up modelling and at the sametime, started auditioning for films. Her debut movie Rocket Singh:Salesman of the Year failed to make an impact, but her next release Dil TohBaccha Hai Ji worked. And now, Shazahn is gearing up for Houseful 2. Aself proclaimed fitness freak, Shazahn endorses Reebok’s Easy Tone range

PERSONAL AGENDA

ACTRESS

SHAZAHN PADAMSEE

CC/LIKE_THE_GRAND_CANYONPHOTO: THINKSTOCK