Hindustan Times Brunch 28 April 2013

WEEKLY MAGAZINE, APRIL 28, 2013Free with your copy of Hindustan Times

VIR SANGHVIOn eat street in Singapore

SEEMA GOSWAMIWhat’s wrong with tears in public?

RAJIV MAKHNIWearable technologyindulge

How Amish andhis wife Preetimarketed TheShiva Trilogy to make itIndian publishing’sbiggest success

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

Expand your weekendby Mignonne DsouzaFree Advice

by Amrah Ashraf

Donald Draper v/s Harvey Specter

Leave on Friday nightWouldn’t it be nice to wakeup on Saturday morning

to a lavish breakfast buffet,or even an early morning dip?

You can make that hap-pen by leaving for your

weekend destination onFriday night rather than the nextday. This way, you get to enjoyall of Saturday, and even

escape the trafficheading out of

town.

Leave earlyon Saturday

If you can’t manage to leave on

Friday evening, consider a VERYearly start on Saturday morn-ing. If your kids are still asleep,load them into the car anyway.

Return on Monday morningThere’s no reasonwhy you can’t headstraight to office

directly from a hotel.Since most people wouldcheck out by late Sunday after-noon, you’ll end up having theresort largely to yourself.

Only have two days for a break? Here’show to make the most of every minute

Brunch Opinion

For this week’s cover story, I met Amish Tripathiand his wife Preeti at their Mumbai home. Most

writers are odd. They ramble. They grumble about theNet. They don’t get Twitter. Amish and Preeti, however, were oddballs of a different sort. When Iposed questions, they all but finished each other’ssentences. When they posed with a Scrabble boardfor pictures, they actually got competitive. Their four-

year-old, Neel, kept racing from roomto room, pretending he was one of

16 species of dinosaur. And afterthe interview, they thanked me,

looked at each otherand said: “OK!Done! Tick-marked!” Fans,make of thiswhat you will.

At Home With Amishby Rachel Lopez

SUIT UPDon is vintage, and everything vintage is precious.His perennially crisp white shirt, retro tie and pocket square are absolutely stunning. But alas,his suits don’t match up to Harvey Specter.

Harvey Specter dresses like a boss. Hisstraight-off-Savile Row look evokes strength,from the three-piece suit to the spread collar andthe Windsor knot. Tom Ford, you reckon?

He’s had too many secretaries. Peggy was meh.Ida Blankenship was old and comicallyincompetent. Allison’s good. But she’s nothing likeSpecter’s Donna. You can’t argue there.

Donna Paulsen is Harvey’s executive assis-tant. She is dramatic. She is stunning. Sheis loyal. She is witty. And more importantly,Harvey can’t do without her. Neither can we.

Okay, this is where Donald eats the cakeand has it too, literally! Some women want

to mother the brooding man with a dark past, others fall in love with him. He just beds them all.

With those looks, he should be in bed more oftenthan Barney Stinson. But he has a run worse thanChandler Bing. Harvey is rarely seen with women.A deliberate choice, or is he bad in bed?

Well, Don makes smoking look really cool. Butkids, don’t be fooled. He might look irresistibly hot

with a stick between his lips, butthink of all the awesome genes

he is killing. Not cool!

Harvey doesn’t smoke. Okay, a doobieonce in a while, but never tobacco. The thought ofbaby Harveys in baby suits with that trademarksmirk is just too beautiful athought to dismiss.

Don scores here.He’s a grown-up,

and we like a manwith stubble and trouble.

Sure he’s delicioustoo, but Harvey is a little too clean andsmooth for our liking.

What is it about Donald Draper (Mad Men) and Harvey Specter (Suits) that women find so irresistible? Is it the powerwhip they crack ever so often, their best-cut suits, their slick pulled-back hair or their office view, which looks out toheaven? It’s all of that and the fact that they put Greek gods to shame. And well, women love men with a vice! They’realike in many ways – but who is hotter?

Not this guy. DonaldDraper isn’t even hisreal name! Forget mommy, even we don’t approve.

Harvey is no angeleither. But he’ll finda way to out-smart even thesharpest mum.

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

DESIGN: Ashutosh Sapru(National Editor, Design),Monica Gupta, SwatiChakrabarti, RakeshKumar, Ashish Singh

FOR ADVERTISING ENQUIRIES, PLEASE CONTACTSanchita Tyagi – [email protected] Chopra - [email protected] Makhija – [email protected] Lobo – [email protected]

Drop us a line at: [email protected] or to 18-20Kasturba Gandhi Marg, New Delhi110001

Cover design: MONICAGUPTA; Cover photo:KALPAK PATHAK; Location: EAT AROUNDTHE CORNER, MUMBAI

APRIL 28, 2013

TAKE HOME TO MOMMY

BITE THAT, MAYBE?

CARRY FORWARD THE LEGACY

UNDER THE SHEETS

SHE ANSWERS HIS CALLS

Harvey, obviously. You could argue. But we are Harvey loyalists. So Don lovers, hard luck!

THE VERDICT

■ Khadi kurtas. Especiallythose from Ahmedabad■ All hail Chris Gayle. 100

off 30 balls. WOW!■ Mango juice. It’s elixir!■ Hot stone massage. Foryour sore shoulders...

■ Stuffed toys

■ The scorching heat■ Mood swings

■ Six-day working week. Weneed proper weekends■ Fried food. Aren’t salads way better? ■ Birthday ‘reminders’.Really now!

LOVE IT SHOVE IT

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hindustantimes.com/brunch

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6 VARIETY

YOU’RE AT a fancy restaurantand place an order for yourfavourite dish. While you waitfor it to arrive, you ‘check in’

via Facebook. When the dish is eventually placed on your table, youbegin taking pictures of it. After getting the ‘perfect’ shot, you share itonline, and finally, dig in.

However, imagine a scenariowhere the wait staff prevents youfrom doing so. It’s happening insome restaurants in New York. So, isthis a shock or a big relief?

Mumbai-based food and winewriter Antoine Lewis (he carries hisiPad to restaurants specifically totake food shots) explains why somerestaurants have decided to inter-vene. “Chefs believe food must behad at the right temperature, andthe food they prepare is the repre-sentation of their restaurant,” hesays. “Besides, an amateur is notreally equipped with the skills totake good pictures.”

That rule sounds the death knellfor food bloggers like CharisBhagianathan. “I know it can be irri-

tating for others, but I can’t eat if Idon’t take photos,” she says.

HOW IT BEGANThe reason we now shoot our foodso much is simple: we can. We’re soused to recording every bit of ourlives – the weekend escape, thesleeping dog, the cute party outfit –that it was inevitable we capture ourgastronomic adventures too. Smartphones have transformedeven non-food bloggers into peoplewho record what they eat. “Foodblogging started with folks just writ-ing about food they enjoyed,” saysBhagianathan. “Slowly the scopegrew to include reviews and ads.”

Today, every other tech-friendlyperson blogs about food. The pic-tures might be tempting, but whatabout the accompanying text?

Mumbai food writer RushinaGhildiyal explains why food blogginghas become so popular. “Our phonesnow have brilliant cameras. Andtoday, restaurants run after blog-gers,” she says. She adds that foodblogging has seen a significant boom

in the last two years. “People nowhave an opinion and want to expressthemselves,” she explains.

VICARIOUS EATINGMany people believe that if youshare pictures of what you’re eating,you’re sharing yourdining experiencewith others. “I thinkit’s one of the bestways to complimenta chef,” says NishantChoubey, executivesous chef with DusitDevarana, NewDelhi, a Bird GroupResort.

Saurabh Khanijo,CEO, Kylin Premier, which servesPan Asian cuisine, disagrees.Despite Kylin’s menu asking peoplenot to take pictures, it’s difficult tocontrol them when they’re on aclicking spree. “Customers are oftenoffended when they’re asked to stoptaking pictures,” he says.

Delhi food bloggerDeeba Rajpal

prefers asking for permis-sion before she begins. “Be sen-

sitive to others. And never, ever usea flash,” she says.

PR executive Shipra Sharmabelieves the practice makes youseem like a wannabe. “We’re at arestaurant, not a photography work-shop! Besides, just because you havea swanky phone doesn’t mean youshoot everything,” she says.

The social media boom has beena big catalyst. “Apps like Instagram

allow people to becreative with theirfood pictures,” saysfood writerGhildiyal.

People usually‘check in’ viaFacebook, so thattheir friends knowwhere they’re dining.“We’re only helpingthe restaurants we’re

dining at gain more popularity. Whywould any chef have a problem?”wonders Delhi consultant and foodieSmita Bhattacharya.

So, will a rule banning trigger-happy photographers inrestaurants work in India? “No,”says Lewis. “It’s too new for India,where we’re still getting accustomedto restaurant etiquette. Banningpeople from taking pictures will be afoolhardy decision.” Agrees Delhi-based pastry chef Kishi Arora.“Word of mouth publicity is the bestpublicity,” he says.

Still, when you’re eating out nexttime, it might be polite to ask fel-low diners for permission beforeyour fingers go click click. Youdon’t want anyone to photobombyour risotto, do you?

[email protected]

Do you obsessivelytake pictures ofeverything you eat,or do you think it’splain rude?by Shreya Sethuraman

APRIL 28, 2013

“Be sensitive toothers in therestaurant,

and never, everuse a flash ”

DEEBA RAJPAL, Delhi food blogger

HOW TO GET THE PLATE TO POSEAspiring food photographers, follow these tips and you’re good to go!

■ Get a table with the best light. Lowlighting at restaurants meansyou would want to use a flashand in turn, disturb others.

■ Position yourdish in thebest way

possible.■ Avoid unnecessary

tableware. That will only end up asshadows, and thus, give you something unflattering.■ Have a clean background. ■ Have the staff place the dish on thetable rather than serve it to you.■ Don’t take too long, especially ifyou’re dining with others.

Courtesy: Antoine Lewis

Photos: SHUTTERSTOCK,THINKSTOCK

8 COVER STORY

HE WRITER and columnistAnil Dharker has an astuteway of describing Amish

Tripathi, author of the ShivaTrilogy (The Immortals of

Meluha, The Secret of the Nagasand the recently released The Oathof the Vayuputras). “Amish has aself belief possibly bordering onarrogance,” Dharker says. It’s acompliment. Tripathi, the bankerwhose manuscript was famouslyrejected by 20-odd publishers (healso showed a copy toDharker only toignore his everysuggestion), hasbecome India’s

fastest selling author.Over 1.7 million copiesof his books havebeen sold, ringingup R40 crore andearning him anunprecedented R5crore advance forhis next series. Itcouldn’t have comewithout self belief andalmost-arrogance.

But as Tripathi readilyacknowledges, it also couldn’t have

come without some very cal-culated risks and a wife

who headed the mar-keting machinerywithout playing aformal role in themaking of the best-sellers. “I think Iwas damn lucky tohave advisers whohad nothing to dowith publishing,”Tripathi admits.“In any indus-try, the peoplewith the freshest

ideas usually comefrom outside.”

BUSINESS PARTNERAlmost everyone who works withTripathi – his agent, publisher, liter-ary festival organisers, publicists,distributors and retailers – creditsthe author’s wife Preeti Vyas forbeing the driving force behind themarketing of the books. Call her a

backseat driving force –Vyas has no official

designation, nodefined post in the

backstage dramaof the ShivaTrilogy. But she’shard to miss.

Unlike mostauthors’ family

members or spouses,Vyas accompanies

Tripathi to meetings, recordsthe minutes, ideates along-side everyone else, emails

checklists and pushes ideas furtherthan they’d normally go. At eventsshe’s the one double-checking withthe staff about seating and event-flow details. “The philosophicalinputs for the book may have comefrom Amish’s family, the marketingand event ideas all come fromPreeti,” says Sangram Surve,founder of Think Why Not, theagency behind most of the ShivaTrilogy promos.

Consider the February 26 launchfor Vayuputras at Crossword’s flag-ship Mumbai store in KempsCorner. Where most releases arehumdrum affairs – author readsextract, has obligatory discussionwith fellow literary type, fields audi-ence questions, signs flyleaves,exits – this one was different. Anhour before the 10pm launch, fans

Behind

Theworst bit

about being married to a

successful author?“Everything I used to nag about hasnow been legitimised. The time hespends watching battle scenes onTV is now research. Being spaced

out is justified as thinking of aplot twist”

– Preeti

YourExcel files

were once filledwith character bios,which never made itto the book. What’s

in them now?My accounts!

– Amish

The BestsellerPh

oto:

KALP

AK P

ATHA

K

A husband who’smore than anauthor; a wifewho’s more thana marketer. HowAmish Tripathiand Preeti Vyaschanged Indianpublishing withThe Shiva Trilogyby Rachel Lopez

pinterest.com/htbrunch 9

had already lined up outside, chant-ing “Har Har Mahadev!” Somewere dressed as characters fromthe series; others sported tattoosfeaturing artwork from the books.There were bouncers for crowdcontrol, numbered tokens to pre-vent queue jumping and MCs toentertain everyone.

Inside, once you squeezed in, itwas even more of a circus. Artistspainted Shiva body art for obligingfans. Dancers performed to musicespecially created for the book. Itwas Indian publishing’s biggestparty. Kajol and Shekhar Kapurwere there. But the biggest starwas Tripathi himself, giving auto-graphs and thanking people forcoming. And it was all the brain-

child of Vyas.As a wife and marketer, Vyas has

helped Tripathi at “all the criticalpoints,” says Dharker. Backwhen he was working on hisfirst manuscript, writing in theback of his car on the way towork, the writing-guide methodof creating character sketcheswould keep interfering withthe storytelling. It wasVyas who suggestedher husband aban-don the templateand write as if hewas recording astory unfolding ina parallel universe

instead.

And when the time came to pro-mote Immortals, the first novelfrom a writer no one had heard of,Vyas suggested that bookstoresoffer free copies of the openingchapter to customers. The strategygot readers to return, buy the book

and make Immortals a bestsellerwithin a week of its release.More recently, Vyas took over

the trilogy’s success party ata five-star hotel. Guests

drank milky “somrass”out of earthen cups,little dumroos atevery table allowedfor a different kind ofaudience applause,

buffet items werenamed to reflect charac-

ters and locations in thenovels, and everyone went

home with a souvenir – a scrollbearing the Pashupati seal that fea-tures prominently in the books.

The only thing missing, as some-one cheekily announced over thespeakers that evening, was achillum of hashish.

DEFINING DETAILS“If Amish had found his call-ing in any other field, I’dprobably have been just asupportive wife,” saysVyas, who owned and rana children’s bookstoreand launched Pantaloon’s

books and music retail divisionbefore she founded the kids’ pub-lishing house Fun Ok Please. “Butas a passionate book lover andsomeone who’d been part of somany book launches, I knew thatI’d better get my act together andput everything I know into Amish’sbook. Because this was it!”

It, however, isn’t easy. Indianpublishing is more used to lobbyingfor awards, angling for blurbs, andgarnering critical favour than har-nessing mass appeal. Narcopolis,Jeet Thayil’s debut novel, whichwas shortlisted for 2012’s ManBooker and Man Asian LiteraryPrize (2012), was launched withouta squeak. Immortals, on the otherhand, came with a live-action YouTube trailerfeaturing Taufiq Qureshi.Tripathi pushed the bookon social networks andfollowed up with distribu-tors to ensure his bookreached every temptedreader.

By the time The Secretof the Nagas was out, theauthor’s fan base hadgrown bigger than any-one was equipped to dealwith. Vyas recalls a book-signing event in Pune: “IfImmortals had 40 people showingup, Nagas had 400. No one wasprepared. Readers crowded aroundAmish, he was at a glass table…anything could have happened.”Her solution? Plan a detailed eventflow, turn it into a bullet-pointchecklist and send it to every storebefore Amish visits. It’s worked.Sivaraman Balakrishnan,Crossword’s senior manager ofmarketing, says he’s interactedwith Vyas almost as much as hehas with her husband, perhapsmore. “I don’t know any otherauthor’s spouse by name.”

Anuj Bahri, proprietor of Delhi

APRIL 28, 2013

Amish, on the other hand,was attracted to Preeti’s exuber-ance. “She fully experiences thejoys of life,” he says. “I think I wasa slightly boring guy before wemet. She taught me to loosen up.”

“Preeti has taughtme to enjoy life a lotmore”

The reason Amish and Preeti work so well together is probably because they’ve had such an early headstart. Thecollege sweethearts met in 1990, standing in line for their IDcards at Mumbai’s St Xavier’s College. “She was ahead of meand asked for gum, or was it scissors?” Amish recalls. Theymarried roughly a decade later at age 24.

TEAMOF

TWO

“The thing I’ve always liked aboutAmish is that he’s so stable anddetached from everything”

FYI: AMISHTALKS PLOT

TWISTSWITH HISSIBLINGSAND IN-

LAWS, BUTMARKETINGIDEAS ALL

COME FROMHIS WIFE,

PREETI

The best partabout being a

successfulauthor?

Reading is now tax deductible!

– Amish

Preeti says: “Back in college, weworked like crazy to make Amish the chair-person for Malhar [the college festival].When he was finally elected, I was the onejumping all over the place. He was so calm, itwas like nothing had happened.”

bookstore Bahrisons (and the agentwho backed Immortals when nopublisher wanted to sign Tripathi),says that Vyas is a stickler for per-fection. “I love it when she says,‘Just leave it, I’ll do it’,” he says.“And for sure she gets it done justthe way she wants it.” Vyas herselfis aware of how her uncredited rolecan be misconstrued. “I don’t comefrom a place that says ‘I am his wifeso you should listen to me’,” shesays. “The publisher and bookstoreis putting in real money. It is realbusiness for them. They can’tindulge whims. I have to present thelogic of my case.”

For Indian publishing, which hasonly recently tapped into the non-literary genre, it’s been a welcomemove. Gautam Padmanaban, CEO ofWestland (the publishers for books2 and 3) sees her as “integral butunobtrusive”.

OUT OF CHARACTERBalakrishnan calls Tripathi the bestexample of a new kind of Indianwriter – one who believes the authoris the CEO of his book – unlikeAmitav Ghosh or Vikram Seth, wholeave promotion to the publisher.“Ashwin Sanghi, Ravi Subramanian,Chetan Bhagat, Ravinder Singh,Rashmi Bansal and Durjoy Dattaknow their reader is not a literaryreader,” he explains. “They have noproblems calling the bookstore andasking us to promote their book.”Bhagat and Tripathi are especiallygood for business. “They release onebook a year, giving us an extra fillipto sell their older books.”

Westland and Penguin’s effortsecho the shift in book buying. Bothfocus on in-store promotion, whichbids goodbye to vanilla launches,and don’t pressurise retailers to sellthe same book the same way every-where. “Each book has a catchmentarea,” Balakrishnan says.“Ravinder’s books do well in Kota,Surat, Baroda and Ahmedabad, notin bigger cities. 2 States sold thebest in Ahmedabad. Authors arerealising this too.”

Surve says an upcoming Penguinauthor has already contacted him,saying his publishers have given hima free hand with promotion.Another writer is planning a videoand album. But Bahri notes thatwhile most new authors have learnta lot about promotion, they haven’tlearned much about the value ofgood writing and good editorial sup-port by a literary agency. “They only

look at us as the ‘dealer’ who willhelp them get the best monetarydeal for their book.”

BEST PRACTICESIt’s perhaps why Tripathi is ahead ofthe game. Starting off with a smallpublisher meant there were no setnotions of selling to begin with. Buthe kept at it. Five years later, heremembers store managers byname. Festival organisers know himto be punctual. Retailers see him asapproachable. Bahri says he’s equal-ly at ease with listening to ideas asgiving them. Vyas says the wholefamily schooled Tripathi for pressinterviews for Nagas. “We askedhim to explain the message of the

book and he went into this longphilosophical lecture. We all shout-ed: “No! That’s the wrong answer!That’s not the message!” AndTripathi calmly acquiesced. Surve’scolleagues have told him thatTripathi at a book signing looks likea “mayor on a campaign”.

And he’s still busy. Every fort-night Tripathi mails bookstores newstatistics for his books – how muchwas sold, where, how fast and whatnew initiatives have been planned.“No author I know does this; it’s cer-tainly not an industry standard,”says Padmanabhan. To retailers, it’san immensely helpful tool. “It keepsyou abreast with best practices andshows you if you’re selling as well asyou should,” Balakrishnan says.

A few weeks after the launch ofVayuputras, Tripathi and Vyasthrew a small party for the photog-rapher, cinematographer, PR andadvertising people and the promo-tions team. “They’d made individualtrophies for all of us,” Surve says.“Preeti did a mini Oscar-style ceremony, with nominees and all,and gave each one their award as athank you. We were all so touched.”

[email protected]

10 COVER STORY

APRIL 28, 2013

A one-minuteclip hits multiplexes

Three trailershit the internet

Topping it off “Amish knew that those who’d boughtbooks 1 and 2 would buy The Oath ofthe Vayuputras, anyway,” Surve says.“Our brief now was to also increasesales of Book 1 and widen fan base.” Idea 1: Think Why Not started off witha music video to garner publicity onmusic channels without ad spend. Idea 2: Then they figured they could licence the song to a music label andmake money and signed a record deal.

Idea 3: The record com-pany planned to fill therest of the CD with theirown music. “So wethought, we might aswell record content ofour own.” And so,what began as asong turned into India’s – possiblythe world’s – firstoriginal soundtrack

for a book.Then, news broke thatKaran Johar had boughtthe movie rights to Immortals. Sales skyrocketed. West-land claims the book sold3.5 lakh copies in its firstweek. By the time you readthis, sales will havetouched 4.5 lakh.

Following up“For The Secret of the Nagas,Amish wanted a trailer in thestyle of HBO’s Spartacus,” recalls Sangram Surve of adfirm Think Why Not. “Thebudget wasn’t big, but it wasa first for India. We wanted tobe part of history.” The filmhit multiplexes and won fans.

Starting outThe Immortals ofMeluha was releasedwith a print run of just5,000 copies. To hookreaders, Tripathi gaveout sample chaptersfor free, got shops todisplay posters and uploaded a promo onYouTube. The first book bythe new author and smallpublisher hit the bestsellerlists within a week.

Tripathi’s story is thestuff of publishinghistory – or at thevery least, a casestudy in out-of-the-box marketing forbright-eyed MBAs.Here’s how he did it

Facebookcontests engage fans

FANTASYBECOMESREALITY

8 STEPS TOA BESTSELLERBELIEVE IN THE STORYYou live in a free coun-try where you have aright to be heard. Don’tbe afraid of putting itout there – Preeti Vyas

DON’T FEAR FAILUREThe moment you areafraid of what people,readers, critics think,you’ll be paralysed. Youcan’t make decisionsbased on market re-search – Amish Tripathi

PREPARE TO DO THE SELLING Publish-ers don’t have the bandwith or themoney to push every book. Figure out what each of your stakeholders’ selfish interest is and add it to yourmarketing plan – Sangram Surve

IF IT DOESN’T WORK, IT’S COOL, MANEveryone gets three out of 10 decisionswrong. But if you’re wrong more oftenthan you’re right, you have a capabilityissue. You probably should be in anoth-er industry – Amish Tripathi

BOUNCE IDEASOFF FRIENDS ANDFAMILY A lot of theplans for the Im-mortals book camefrom calling peoplehome and feedingthem coffee, din-ner and apple pie – Preeti Vyas

WRITING ISN’T EVERYTHING.There are a lot of books outthere. Many don’t make it tothe reader. Yours has to shout“I’m here! I deserve to beread!” – Sangram Surve

APPROACH EVERY PUBLISHERIt’s still the best way to get abook out – Preeti Vyas

Remember that in India, the average bestseller is still only 3,000 to 10,000 copies

– Sivaraman Balakrishnan

WHAT SHIVA DID NEXTReaders line up for the first copiesof Vayuputras on February 26 atCrossword, Mumbai

Nagasbecame a

bestseller onpre-orders

alone

SHIVA, ON THE RECORDFor an EXCLUSIVE video featuring Amish and Preeti, visit hindustantimes. com/brunch

tumblr.com/HTBrunch

YOU COULDN’T possibly have missed thebrouhaha that erupted when GeorgeOsborne, British Chancellor of the Exchequer,

let one solitary tear escape down his cheek at thefuneral of Margaret Thatcher.

The Internet went into instant meltdown. Somederided him for this show of ‘weakness’ (you knowhow ‘real’ men ‘never’ cry, right?). Others dismissedhis tearing up as a cynical ploy to show just howgood a Thatcherite he was (after all, what was heweeping about, given that he had met the Iron Ladyon less than a dozen occasions?). There were thosewho agreed that yes, the tears were not genuine,but put them down to the Tory leader trying to create a more ‘caring’ image for himself (remem-ber, this was a man who was booed at such a feel-good event as the London Olympics). Amidst all thejokes, jabs and jeering, there were only a few whosaid what I was feeling: what is the world comingto if you can’t even cry at a funeral?

Full disclosure here: I am one of the blubbers ofthe world. And yes, I cry at funerals. It doesn’t real-ly matter how well I have known the deceased, orhow many times I have met them. There is some-thing about funerals that brings out the tears – wellmine, at any rate. Sometimes it is a particular bha-jan being sung as part of the service; sometimes atiny detail that evokes memories of funeral past (of those I was par-ticularly close to); sometimes it is the thought of how I would feelcoping with a loss like this one; and sometimes it is just the sight ofclose family members of the deceased trying to pull themselvestogether even though they are clearly falling apart.

At a time like this, sympathy segues seamlessly into empathy,and you can’t help but cry for the universal sorrow that is bereave-ment. This is not something any of us can escape. At some timeor another, we will have to mourn our grandparents,bid farewell to our parents, experience the loss of asibling, see a close friend succumb to illness. If weare very lucky, we will never know the gut-wrench-ing sorrow of losing someone of the next generation,

who should by rights have been the one to mournus. But no matter how life pans out, bereavementis something that all of us will have to bear, sooner or later.

As the saying goes, grief is the price you payfor love.

But what is the acceptable face of grief when youlose someone you loved, or even just admired fromafar? And has it changed over the years?

In India, at least, I would have to say yes. Growingup in a traditional joint family, as a child I was witness to the spectacular outpouring of grief thateveryone indulged in when there was a death in theextended clan. There was weeping; there was wailing; on some occasions, there was even somebeating of breasts. It was loud, it was disturbing, itwas even melodramatic at times. But everythingsaid and done, it was undoubtedly cleansing.

After such an outburst of grief, you felt that youhad really mourned someone. There was no but-

toning up of your feelings. There was no concession made to spar-ing the feelings of others. There was no embarrassment about let-ting it all hang out. In a sense, you were given permission to grieveas publicly as you saw fit; as loudly as you wanted to. And nobodyjudged you or condemned you as an incontinent so-and-so.

In the old days, certain Indian states like Rajasthan even had professional mourners, called rudaalis (the subject of an epony-mous movie that earned lead actress Dimple Kapadia a national

award). These were lower-caste women hired to mourn(as loudly as possible) in an explosive public display ofgrief. This worked at two levels. One, to express thesorrow that the family may have been shy of exhibit-ing in public and two, to goad them into have a propercry. Because sometimes there really is no better cathar-sis than tears.

But that was then. Now, tears at funerals are seenas bad taste. It is considered somewhat repellent tomake a public exhibition of your grief. If you mustcry, then cry in private. You must not shed tears in

public in case you make other people uncomfortable.So, chin up please (and make sure it’s not quivering). And let’ssee what the British so delightfully describe as a ‘stiff upper lip’.

Well, I don’t know about you, but I am tired of being told that adisplay of emotions or the appearance of tears at a funeral (or any-where else, for that matter) is something to be ashamed of. Thatwe must present a stoic façade at all times, or stand condemned –as George Osborne was – of everything ranging from emotionalincontinence to hypocritical cynicism.

Honestly, it’s enough to make a grown man – or woman – cry.

SeemaGoswami

spectator

NOT PROPAHEarlier, you were given permission to grieve as publicly as you saw fit; asloudly as you wanted to.Now, tears at funerals areseen as bad taste

OMG! HOW COULD HE?The Internet went intoinstant meltdown and abrouhaha erupted whenGeorge Osborne, BritishChancellor of the Exchequer,let one solitary tear escapedown his cheek at the funeral of Margaret Thatcher

Since whendid we startderidingpeople forcrying at funerals?

TEARS IN HEAVEN

APRIL 28, 2013

MOURNING OFFICIALLYRudaalis or professional mourners became the subjectof an eponymous movie that earned lead actress Dimple Kapadia a national award

MORE ON THE WEBFor more SPECTATOR columns by Seema Goswami, log onto hindustantimes.com/Brunch. Follow @SeemaGoswami on Twitter. Write to her [email protected]

twitter.com/HTBrunchPh

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12 indulge

Sometimesthere reallyis no bettercatharsisthan tears

SINGAPORE MAY be turning into Singabore. What youthink of the new Singapore depends largely on who youare and why you are visiting. I’ve been going to Singaporesince 1976 and it has changed more during that period

than nearly any city I can think of. In some ways, I guess that isonly to be expected, but the extent to which the city keeps reinventing itself – in not very interesting ways – always surpris-es me.

For instance, the Singapore of the late Nineties, when OrchardRoad was the centre of everything, has vanished. In those daysyou went on the night safari, took the cable car to Sentosa, ateand drank at Boat Quay and Clarke Quay and pretty much walkedeverywhere. Now Orchard Road is the centre of town only to theextent that Connaught Place is the centre of Delhi; nobody goesto either of the Quays, the zoo and night safari are tiresome, andSentosa is a full-fledged suburb of Singapore with many hotels,casinos and fancy residential blocks.

We can argue about the factors that brought about the changebut my guess is that the handover of Hong Kong to the Chinese

by the Brits was the key event. Singapore offered itself up tothe global financial community and all the multinational cor-porations functioning in Asia as the new Hong Kong: clean-er, safer, English-speaking and entirely free of nastyCommunist influence or – and this may be more impor-tant – Communist corruption.

So , the new Singapore is booming. There is more moneyon display than ever before. The hotels are even fancier.

New restaurants open every week. And the old-style expatriate manager with a love of the tropics has been replacedby financial whiz-kids of the kind we used to call yuppies in theold days.

But just as financial Singapore has changed after the han-dover, so has everything else. Eager to capitalise on mainlandChina’s new prosperity, Singapore actively courts Chinesetourists, invites them to shop for designer goods and directs

them to the new casinos. Those mainland Chinesewho are too poor to be of tourist value are shippedin and given jobs as menials.

The changes trouble Singapore’s essentiallyChinese middle class. For a start, everything isridiculously expensive (you will find that NewYork is much cheaper), including housing. Foranother, the balance of the city has been affect-ed. The middle class resents the expats with theirfancy salaries. There are now many prosperousIndian Indians (as distinct from ethnic SingaporeIndians) and they make more money than thelocals because of high salaries in the financial andIT sectors. But the Singapore Chinese are espe-cially resentful of the new imports from the main-land who they regard as bumpkins who are will-ing to work at low wages.

All this makes today’s Singapore a pretty use-less place for an Indian tourist. There is nothingvery interesting to do. There is no natural beau-ty. And if you like tall buildings you can go toGurgaon, which is roughly as charming. PlusSingapore is just too expensive to be worth it. Irealised with a start, when I arrived at Changi(still the world’s best airport, by the way) that ithad been a full year since I had seen any cause tovisit Singapore. And then too, I had come toSingapore for just one reason: Peter Knipp.

Knipp is the former chef who put Singapore onthe world foodie map by organising (initially withthe Singapore Tourism Board) the World GourmetSummit, an annual event that brings togethersome of the world’s best chefs. Peter had difficulty

dragging the top chefs to Singapore in the early years but theSummit is now 17 years old and I can’t think of a single chef any-where in the world who regards it as beneath him.

This year, I ate at Song of India where our very own SanjeevKapoor was cooking. (Vikas Khanna did the same gig last year.)Such is the power of Sanjeev’s name that the restaurant was soldout for his very first lunch service and even local Chinese guestsasked to be photographed with him.

If Sanjeev delighted fans of the Indian MasterChef, then therewas enough to please fans of the Australian version: Matt Moranwas cooking at The Prime Society, a well-regarded steakhouse.Matt did his classics, including the Peking Duck Consomme whichwas actually better than the version I ate at Aria, his signature

Vir Sanghvi

rude tr

avel

Photos: COURTESY FACEBOOK

APRIL 28, 2013

SINGAPORE: JUSTEAT STREET NOW

14 indulge

LEARNING FROM THE MASTERSThe World Gourmet Summit organises several masterclasses, where people can pay to watch the top chefs of the world in action

For me, the only reason to visit Singaporeis the World Gourmet Summit

POWER OF THE NAMEThe restaurant, Song of India, was sold out for Sanjeev Kapoor’s very firstlunch service and even localChinese guests asked to bephotographed with him

Photo: THINKSTOCK

restaurant in Sydney. How, I asked Matt, could he reach suchstandards in an unfamiliar kitchen? The answer was simple: hemade the soup in Sydney and brought it to Singapore!

Matt has now left MasterChef Australia, he told me, as theratings have plummeted. I assured him that Indian viewers ofStar World were still to tire of the show and when he does makeit to India (for the first time!) later this year, he can expect to betreated like a rock star.

One of Peter Knipp’s talents lies in picking chefs who are trendyin their own countries but lesser-known abroad. This year, hebrought William Ledeuil from Paris. Ledeuil is a controversial chef in French foodie circles becausehis cuisine uses so many southeast Asian spices andit took him years to get his first Michelin star. Onthe other hand, he is a hero to the Le Fooding move-ment which is a reaction to what some see as thestuffiness of Michelin.

I ate his food at My Humble House, one of the 26restaurants owned by Andrew Tjioe of the TungLok group, the king of Singapore’s restaurant scene.Andrew collaborates with ITC on the Delhi HumbleHouse but his empire is really exploding in Chinaand Indonesia. Also at dinner was Susur Lee (youmay have seen him on Top Chef Masters) the NorthAmerican-based Chinese chef who most Americanfood writers regard as the inventor of modern Chinese cuisine.Susur hopes to head out to India this year and perhaps Andrewwill persuade him to cook at the Delhi Humble House.

Among the most popular chefs at the Gourmet Summit wasGabriele Ferron, a passionate, expressive Italian chef straight outof central casting. Ferron runs a famous restaurant in Veronabut is best known as the Ambassador of Italian rice. Hecooked at the tiny Forlino and though his star dish wasmeant to be a delicate pistachio risotto (which was great),I was more impressed by his use of Italian black rice.William Ledeuil had used purple southeast Asian riceto great effect and their dishes made me wonder:why are we so hung up in North India on basmati?India has some of the best rice varieties in theworld and we don’t make enough of them.

Ferron also gave me a masterclass in the art of risotto but Ithink I’ll save that for another piece.

There were two stars (for me at least) at the Summit. One wasDario Cecchini who you will not have heard of, unless you haveread Bill Bruford’s experiences of working with him in The NewYorker. Dario is not a chef. He is a butcher. But he comes froma long line of artisanal butchers and is – by any standards – acharacter. Enormously charismatic, fiery and volatile, he speaksno English but can still hold an entire room in his thrall.

The Gourmet Summit organises demonstrations (called JamSessions) and I went to Dario’s. He brought alonga whole leg of beef and cut it into chunks in frontof the audience to explain what the cuts were andhow they must be cooked. Most of us get our meatin packets so it was fascinating to see a masterbutcher at work with his hands.

The other star was the ubiquitous Jean-FrançoisPiège, France’s Chef of the Year, Paris’s chef of themoment and the only man to get two Michelinstars within three months of opening his restau-rant. I’ve eaten Piège’s food before but one of thegreat things about the Gourmet Summit is theopportunity it gives ordinary people like us, thechance to eat food that has actually been cooked

and plated by the chef himself. There were about10 people at our table and Piège went from guest to guest pour-ing the sauce onto each plate.

As expected, the food was delicious. But what interested mewas that Piège had created dishes just for the Summit. He onlycooks in Paris with the best fresh ingredients so the Singapore

trip meant that he had to invent new dishes with ingredi-ents he would not normally use. Given some US Primeto work with, he produced an astonishing variation onsteak and chips with béarnaise sauce. Other dishes wereas inventive.

Afterwards, I asked him what his favourite dish in theworld was. He gave me an answer only a Frenchman

could give: fresh petit pois, the small peas thatare in season for only three weeks of the year.“Just petit pois,” he said. “Good ingredientsare more important than good cooking.”

But good cooking matters too. That’s whyI’m such a Gourmet Summit regular. Andthat is the only reason left to visit Singapore:to eat.

MORE ON THE WEBFor more RUDE TRAVEL columns byVir Sanghvi, log on tohindustantimes.com/brunch

youtube.com/HindustanTimesBrunch 15

HE MAKES THE CUTMaster butcher Dario Cecchini is fiery,volatile and charismatic

EAGERLY AWAITEDWhen Matt Moran of MasterChef Australia visits India thisyear, he can expect to be treated like a rock star

ALL TOGETHER NOWPeter Knipp is a formerchef who put Singapore onthe world foodie map by organising the WorldGourmet Summit

ALL HAIL THE RICE MAN Among the most popularchefs at the Gourmet Summit was Gabriele Ferron, who runs a famousrestaurant in Verona, Italy,but is best known as the Ambassador of Italian rice

APRIL 28, 2013

ALL THAT HE CAN BEJean-François Piège is France’s Chef of theYear, Paris’s chef of the moment and the onlyman to get two Michelin stars within threemonths of opening his restaurant

Everything inSingapore is

so ridiculouslyexpensive that

you’ll findNew Yorkcheaper

Any sufficiently advanced technology is indis-tinguishable from magic’. Arthur C Clarkewrote that in his essay, Hazards of Prophecy

and even though he wrote it in 1962, he got it bangon. Every few years, along comes a technology thattruly transforms lives, makes our jaws drop at thepotential and makes us yearn to strap it on and startour magical journey. Wearable tech is the latesttechnology magic that has taken the world by storm.Unfortunately every ‘Next Big Thing’ also spawnssome ‘Next Big Horrible Idea’ devices too. Here’smy list of top wearable tech products that are emerg-ing. How many of these are incredible innovationsand how many should be thrown in the super clunker basket?

TOP WEARABLE TECH PRODUCTS

Solar Coterie – Solar Powered Bikini: Yes, youread that right. It’s a bikini retrofitted with photo-voltaic waterproof solar film strips sewn togetherin series with conductive thread. The cells termi-nate in a 5-volt regulator and you can chargeyour phone or portable music playerthrough an attached USB connection.There’s also a male swimsuit versioncoming that apparently has more ‘sur-face’ area. Go figure!

Amiigo – Fitness Bracelet: Most activ-ity trackers give you an estimate ofyour physical activity all day by track-ing movement. Unfortunately that’snot very accurate as they can’t track theenergy burnt during lifting weights or aspin cycling session. That’s where theAmiigo comes in. It can track the exer-cise type, reps, sets, duration, speed andintensity while built-in sensors can mon-itor real-time heart rate, blood oxygenlevels, skin temperature, sweat, overall activity level and caloriesburned.

Misfit Shine: This is the next generation of clip-on physical track-ers. This is a tiny, waterproof, all-metal activity tracker that you cansync with your smartphone just by placing it on your phone screen.

It has built-in sensors that can track cycling, swim-ming, running and walking, plus it keeps you ontrack all day with an array of light, that shines throughmicroholes laser-drilled into the metal shell andalerts you about your activity progress.

Beauty and the GeekJeans: Is that a key-board on your pantsor are you just happyto see me! These jeansgo where no jeanshave gone before.They have a key-board, a speaker andmouse built right inand can connect toyour computer th-rough Bluetooth. Myonly real issue is actu-ally typing on thatkeyboard as that’s the kind of ‘space’ I don’t wantto drum my fingers on all day!

Orange Power Wellies: Our bodies generate aninfinite amount of energy, and there’s nobody tap-ping it. Well, now your shoes can. These Wellieshave a power-generating sole that converts heatfrom your feet into an electrical current. As youmove about all day, the ‘welectricity’ you generate

gets stored and all you haveto do is plug in your phoneinto the power output at thetop of the boot and it’s goodto go. Walking around all daycan give you about an hour ortwo of a boost – and if youwant more, then it’s recom-mended that you get onto thedance floor. But don’t blameme if you look like a total pratdancing in those oversizedboots!

BLACKSOCKS – the world’s smartest socks: Mankind is madefor greater things than sorting socks; that’s the claim of this man-ufacturer and I’d tend to agree. Each pair of socks comes with aRFID (radio-frequency identification) chip built-in that talks toan app on your phone. This tells you which socks belong togeth-er, how often you’ve washed your socks, how old they arenow, if they’ve lost colour and aren’t jet black any-more and even helps you order new ones andalerts you when they’ve been dispatched.Overkill, anyone?

There are many others, like the Pebblewatch, the Basis Band or the LUMOback –but those I’ve already covered earlier. Yes,some are horrible ideas and some are radically mouth-watering. But then that’show all magic is, isn’t it? Some leave youspellbound at the sheer wizardry of it all andsome leave you disappointed by the sillinessof it all. Which of the above is magical and which is super clunky?Time for you to pronounce a verdict by joining me on Twitter.

Rajiv Makhni is managing editor, Technology, NDTV, and the anchor of Gadget Guru, CellGuru and Newsnet 3

Rajiv MakhniFrom socks

that tell youthey need tobe washed tojeans thathave a keyboard,wearabletech seemslike magic

hindustantimes.com/brunch

ALL CHARGED UP Charge your phoneor portable musicplayer with the helpof this solar bikini

MORE ON THE WEBFor previous columnsby Rajiv Makhni, log onto hindustantimes.com/brunch. Follow Rajiv onTwitter at twitter.com/RajivMakhni

Future Fashion now by Cute Circuit:Singers Katy Perry, Nicole Scherzinger andSafura have all worn them and if you thinkthese are some tacky dresses with some ghast-ly LED lights inside them flashing on and off– then you’re going to be very pleasantly surprised (check cutecircuit.com/videos). Forinstance the K Dress is a hand-pleated silkchiffon and silk taffeta dress, with thousandsof super miniature LED lights embedded inthe fabric that sparkle in patterns and coloursthat you can set with a snap-in controller. Youplug the dress into a USB port to charge upfor an entire night.

APRIL 28, 2013

SNAP IT ON Amiigo: Fitness Braceletcan track the energy youburn during exercise sessions

techilicious

16 indulgeCLIP IT ONMisfit Shine sensorsalert you about youractivity progress

GEEKY JEANS These all-in-one jeanscan be paired with your computer via Bluetooth

BOOT UP Convertheat fromyour feetinto electri-cal currentwith theseWellies

FIND A PAIRKnow if you’ve pairedyour socks right withBLACKSOCKS

WEAR YOUR TECH

WHO GOES to Chicago any-way? When you travelhalfway across the world,you pay your respects to

Times Square, soak in the Californiansun, gamble in Vegas and monkeyaround in Disneyland.

But Chicago? You go there for thestunning skyline, the magnificentlakefront. You go there for pizza thatmelts in your mouth and to swayyour hips to electric blues. But moreimportantly, you visit Chicago forthe stories. This is the land of AlCapone, the most notorious mobsterduring the 1920s Prohibition era. It’salso the hometown of Hugh Hefner.It was here, in 1953, that Hefner produced the first issue of Playboymagazine. And right here in 1960, heopened the first Playboy Club –where Playboy Bunnies would serve

food and alcohol to exclusive key-holders. When Hefner left for LosAngeles in the ’70s, he closed itdown. Now, the original PlayboyMansion just sits there quietly, inthe posh Gold Coast neighbourhood.

A ROARIN’ FIREThe name ‘Chicago’ is derived fromthe Native American wordShikaakwa, which means wildonions (which grew along theChicago River). The Americansincorporated it as a city only in 1837.Railroads were constructed, facto-ries were built. By 1870, it was one ofthe largest cities in America. But thestory of Chicago, really, begins withthe Great Chicago Fire.

In 1871, Mrs Catherine O’Learyand her husband Patrick lived in alittle cottage in Chicago. Accordingto the most popular version of thestory, Mrs O’Leary was milking acow in her barn when it kicked overa lantern which started the fire. MrsO’Leary swore she was in bed whenit happened and many different versions surfaced. The real causeremains an unsolved mystery. What

is known is that the fire did start inthat little barn and that it spreadthrough the city. It roared and flaredfor two days, destroying most of thecity, while Chicagoans scurried tothe shores of Lake Michigan.

Rebuilding started almost imme-diately. Laws were passed for build-ings to be fireproof. The debris wasdumped into Lake Michigan as land-fill, it’s what the spectacularMillennium Park is built on.Charming, right? All the photos onFlickr can’t prepare you for the marvel that is this gigantic publicpark (it covers more than 24 acres)on Chicago’s lakefront. It hosts some

Go to Chicago for the stunning skyline,the deep-dish pizza, the electric blues.But more importantly, for the storiesby Saudamini Jain

18 TRAVEL

CHICAGO,CHICAGO,I Will ShowYou Around

3 days in ChicagoI was in Chicago for three perfectdays. And if you plan it right, you canactually see a lot! We flew on QatarAirways’ maiden flight to Chicagoand on landing, were greeted with awater salute at O’Hare airport. It waslike the plane was being baptised. OnDay One, we visited Millennium Parkand the Art Institute of Chicago (setaside at least an hour for its fabulousMuseum Shop). The Field Museum of Natural Historyis also a venue of some culturalevents, and that’s where the partywas that night. The highlights: cham-pagne right next to Sue, a T-Rexskeleton, and Jennifer Hudson, whoperformed at the party! On Day Two,we squeezed in a tour of the city in alorry and an architecture boat cruise.In the evening, we had cock-tails at Signature Room atthe 95th, on the 95thfloor of the John Han-cock building and bluesat Blue Chicago, a long,dark club with gorgeous music. Day Three was saved forshopping on State Street and pizza atLou Malnati’s – Chicago’s oldest piz-za place. The Chicago deep-dish piz-za is not a pan pizza. This one has athick crust only at the edges, the restof the pizza is thin crust filled withcheese, sauce and toppings. A sliceis a meal.

FOR YOUR LEISURE ONLYA trip to Chicago is incomplete till youvisit at least one blues club. We recom-mend Blue Chicago (left). Also say helloto Sue (below), the T-Rex skeleton at theField Museum of Natural History

APRIL 28, 2013

IF I HAD A BOAT...An Architecture River Cruise is the bestway to fully appreciate Chicago

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of the city’s most interesting eventsand works of art. Anish Kapoor’sCloud Gate, a massive steel struc-ture shaped like a bean, is like akaleidoscope made of mirrors. It canfascinate you for hours.

And because every park musthave a water body, you have CrownFountain. This is the coolest part.Inspired by gargoyles, it has two50-feet-high towers facing eachother, which display digital videos –clips of 1,000 different Chicagoansthat play successively. Each face isup there for 15 minutes; you’ll see aface, it will pucker upand, in the sum-mer, will sproutout water.

Right next dooris the Art Instituteof Chicago, the old-est and largest artmuseum inAmerica. It has thebest Impressionistcollection outside ofParis. One of the

permanent installations on display isFragments of Chicago’s Past – a col-lection of architectural objects, mostfrom old buildings of Chicago. Thebuilding, which houses the museumwas built for the ColumbianExposition of 1893. It’s where SwamiVivekananda gave his famousChicago speech introducingHinduism to the world (the videoson YouTube, as it turns out, arefake). More interestingly, the exposi-tion was also where the first FerrisWheel, designed and constructed byGeorge Washington Gale Ferris Jr,

was displayed.

STANDING TALLBy the end of the19th century andwell into the next,Chicago kept grow-ing rapidly. WithLake Michigan onone side, and theChicago River onthe other, the cityhad to grow verti-

cally. The first skyscraper wasborn right here. And many fol-lowed. There are two ways of fullyappreciating the beauty of the city.And there’s no reason why youshouldn’t do both.

The first is simpler: the viewfrom the John HancockObservatory, 1,000 feet up (theJohn Hancock Building was oncethe tallest in the world). The second is the architecture rivercruise. A tried and tested one is onChicago’s First Lady. This lovelyyacht is warm and comfortable,complete with a bar. But the idea isto climb to the upper deck with thetour guide (who will know every-thing there is to know about thecity). You’ll hear interesting storiesabout the buildings you can see allaround the river: The TrumpTowers, the Wrigley Building, theChicago Tribune tower, VillageTower (formerly the Sears Tower),Navy Pier… and you will smellchocolate! Turns out, it’s waftingfrom the Blommer ChocolateFactory nearby.

A visit to Chicago isn’t completetill you say hello to Sue, the largestand most completeTyrannosaurus Rexskeleton in the world.The 67-million-year-olddinosaur inhabits theField Museum ofNatural History.

The only part that’sdisconcerting is howthere are no signs of AlCapone. Chicago isalmost embarrassedabout its gangland past. The citythat loves its tales has downplayedits most thrilling one. TheLexington Hotel, which served asAl Capone’s headquarters, is gone– it never really escaped its reputa-tion. And unless somebody pointsit out, you will skip the site of theSt Valentine’s Day Massacre (in

1929, seven mobsters were gunneddown in one of America’s bloodiestpower struggles between two rivalcriminal gangs, the Italian one ledby Al Capone and the Irish one byGeorge ‘Bugs’ Moran). There is aspecific mob tour for those inter-ested – The Untouchables, but it’sone of the few.

Mark Twain oncesaid of the Windy City– It is hopeless for theoccasional visitor to tryto keep up with Chicago– she outgrows hisprophecies faster than hecan make them. She isalways a novelty; for sheis never the Chicago yousaw when you passedthrough the last time.

It’s probably also because youcannot see the city all at once.There will be newer things to do onthe next trip, and the one afterthat. And there will be stories,served with a drink, or more.

[email protected] writer’s trip was sponsored by

Qatar Airways

pinterest.com/htbrunch

GETTING THEREVisa: Applying for an Americanvisa is a piece of cake. Andusually, they’ll give you onethat lasts a decade. Visit: newdelhi.usembassy.gov.Currency: One American dollaris about R56.Getting there: There are flightsto Chicago from several Indiancities.Getting around: You can utilisethe fantastic train network. Ifyou’re in downtown Chicago,just walk it. If you can affordit, take a cab.Tip: You can’t not tip in the US.

BUILDING BLOCKSThe building of the Art Institute of Chica-go (above) was built for the ColumbianExposition of 1893 where the first FerrisWheel was displayed (below)

20 TRAVEL

PARK YOURSELF HEREPhotos on Flickr can’t prepare youfor Millennium Park. AnishKapoor’s Cloud Gate (above) andJaume Plensa’s Crown Fountain(left) are marvellous

In 1960,Hugh Hefneropened thefirst Playboy

Club inChicago

THE BIG BAD MAN

Chicago was home to Al Capone

and Prohibition-era gangsters

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21WELLNESS

APRIL 28, 2013

SHIKHA SHARMA

MIND BODY SOUL

Photos: SHUTTERSTOCK

WE HEAR of calories fromhealth professionals. We read

calories on nutritional labels and wetalk about calories all day when weare trying to lose weight. But is thecalorie an authentic measure offood or biological energy? It mayshock you, but the answer is a resounding ‘No’.

Most people, after reading this,might take a step backand think, ‘Are all thosebooks and food labelswrong? Is the informa-tion about calorie chartsirrelevant?’ To answerthese questions, it is important to understandwhat a calorie meansand how its usage cameinto being.

STARTING POINTThe origin of the term ‘calorie’ isstill debated, but some authors haveattributed the term to French physi-cist and chemist, Nicolas Clement,who spoke about it while lecturingon heat engines in Paris around1819. At this time, the term ‘calorie’was used for thermal energy.

Around 1894, JH Raymond usedthe term Kcal, borrowed fromphysics, to describe energy needs inhuman physiology. While the termwas borrowed, its scientific basiswas ignored. In the original context,calorie meant the energy requiredto raise the temperature of water by1 degree. To add to the confusion, a

device known as the ‘bomb caloriemeter’ was deployed to measurethe change in temperature in a fooditem after it had combusted. In asimilar manner, the calorie chart forall foods was created. The nutrition-al calorie was called a kilo calorie orkilojoules.

In this process, the biggest scientific fact was forgotten – food

is not burned inside thebody and metabolism isnot like combustion(burning). Metabolism isan entirely differentprocess. The reason thatthis calorie counting hasto be given up is because in the contextof an obesity epidemic,it only leads to furtherconfusion and keeps us

away from a genuine understandingof how food impacts our body.

A CONFUSING LOTCounting calories will only lead people on the wrong path and mightcause nutritional imbalances. Forexample, if we measure the caloriesin a spoon of sugar, it comes to just15 calories. This means 10tsp ofsugar will come to just 150 calories.All of us know how fat we will become if we consume 10tsp of sugar every day, even though 150calories is a small number. Again,the calories in a large bowl ofmoong dal is approximately 150calories. But we know that in life,one bowlful of moong dal doesn’tlead to weight gain, whereas 10tspof sugar certainly does.

So, what is the way forward? Tofight the obesity epidemic, onemust look at alternative and authen-tic parameters like the impact offoods after digestion. One must alsoconduct further studies on the me-

tabolism of food in the body.Till a better measure is

discovered, it is time wejunked thecalorie con-

cept and look atjust the

health compo-nent of food.

[email protected]

JUNK THE

MYTH Counting calories will only leadyou up the wrong path

MORE ON THE WEBFor more columns by Dr Shikha Sharma and other wellnessstories, log on to hindustantimes.com/brunch

We need tounderstandhow food

impacts ourbody

CALORIEDILEMMACountingcalories isnot going tosolve weightissues

APRIL 28, 2013

PERSONAL AGENDA22 tumblr.com/HTBrunch

The first album you saved up to buy. Rush’s Moving Pictures in 1982.The one song you would compose differently if you got another chance.Too many. I would love to goback and redo all my albums.Your dream concert venue. Red Rocks, Nevada or Madi-son Square Garden, New York.Your proudest moment. Performing with Zakir Hussainfor the first time in San Francisco in front of 17,000people.

Have you ever choked on stage?Hmmm… can’t really remember. We tend to blockthose things out.A gadget you can’t do without.My laptop. It’s all happening inthere.What do you do right before you stepon stage?Take a deep breath.Three things we would find on your

bedside table. My phone, some-one’s biography anda cup of tea.The best thing about living in New York? It’s the most diversecity in the world.The worst thing aboutliving in New York? One can get lost inall the madness.The biggest cliché aboutthe Indian American? That they have losttheir connection totheir culture.The song you want themto play at your funeral. One of mine, I guess.One lie you often get away with.That it’s good.The biggest risk you’ve taken.Becoming a musician.One piece of advice you wish someone had given you 10 years ago.Take time off, shut down fromall your work, so you can come

back with a freshhead.Your strategy in a crisis. Remain calm.The craziest rumour youhave heard about yourself.That I grew up withBiggie Smalls inBrooklyn.Five things that are definitely on your bucketlist? Go to Istanbul, makea film, write a book,score a play and finally find peace.If you woke up one

morning, and found youhad become tone deaf…My world would be over as Iknow it.If you had to dodge this interview,what song would you sing? Still Know Nothing ’Bout Me bySting.

—Interviewed by MignonneDsouza

Singer & musician

HOMETOWNBrooklyn

PLACE OF BIRTHWest Bromwich, England

BIRTHDAYNovember 1

SUN SIGN Scorpio

HIGH POINT OF LIFE Becoming a father to thebest little girl in the world

FIRST BREAKRecording with DJ Spookyin 1993

LOW POINT OF YOUR LIFE Having back surgery last year

Karsh KaleKarsh Kale

YOUR FIRSTCRUSH?

All of thewomen fromCharlie’sAngels (theoriginal TVshow)Signal To Noise -

Peter GabrielGuru Bandhana - Ali Akbar Khan1999 – PrinceEnd Of the World – REMStairway to Heaven – Led Zeppelin

5SONGS TOLISTEN TO

WHEN YOURWORLDCOMES

CRASHINGDOWN

CURRENTLY I AM...Recording an album with myband, Karsh Kale Collectiv

COLLEGENYU (New York University)

Singer & musician

Photo: ANJA MATTHES