Art to Art: Essays and Critique
by Prabhakar Kolteel
(Bodhana Arts Foundation)
One of India’s most prominent abstractionists, Prabhakar Kolte has traded his paintbrush for the pen with his latest work From Art to Art: Essays and Critique, his first English publication. Interspersed with full page reprints of works by Kolte himself, M.F. Husain, Shankar Palsikar and Vasudev Gaitonde among others, the book traverses subjects that range from the functionality of art and the role it plays in contemporary society, to his appropriation of abstract art, his genre preference and even offers brutally honest insights into the present-day art world. As an artist and an instructor, he brings a telescopic view of the evolution of art that pre-dates India’s independence all the way up to art as it stands in the 21st century.

Out of the Frying Pan
It’s definitely been a change from writing on the economy but Richard Morais, senior editor at Forbes, with a much acclaimed unauthorised biography of Pierre Cardin to his name, has taken to fiction quite well with his first novel The Hundred Foot Journey. Based one of his earliest passions (read gastronomy) the book is narrated in retrospect by Hassan Haji, an Indian immigrant who shifts base to Paris after his family restaurant in Mumbai is destroyed by communal violence. Settling in a quaint French town called Lumiere they set shop across from Madame Mallory’s famous establishment. The jugalbandi that ensues is delightful and “About finding your way in life, your true calling, even when it is at odds with your cultural heritage.”

Extracts from an interview with the author
How did you arrive at the subject?
I was a friend of the film producer Ismail Merchant, of Merchant Ivory Productions. Both of us had a weakness for food and found cooking to be a means to relax. I urged Ismail to find a literary property that would marry his love of the kitchen with his love of film-making. A few months later while travelling with my wife and daughter in Guernsey, the idea for The Hundred-Foot Journey popped into my head. Alas, Ismail died before I completed the book, but I still hope a film-maker will one day pick up this property and make what it was always intended to be – a luscious, amusing and moving film.

So is this based on personal experience?
I grew up in Zurich, Switzerland, and at the age of 10, I worked illegally after school in a kitchen at a local hotel down the road from where we lived. It was purely out of choice — I wanted a bit of extra pocket money and I lied about my age to get the job. I washed dishes, peeled carrots and swept up the dead bugs under the hot stove.

How does Forbes factor in?
Forbes helped a great deal, because as their international editor, I get to travel the world. My Forbes job allowed me to visit India, as I was writing the book, and to spend a half day researching in the kitchen of Khyber, the wonderful restaurant in Mumbai, besides roaming wide-eyed through the fantastic Crawford market.

Stay Hungry Stay Foolish
by Rashmi Bansalel
(IIM Ahmedabad CIIE)
Sharing space with the work of Thomas Friedman and Richard Branson at the top of the non-fiction bestseller list this month is the unique and refreshing Stay Hungry Stay Foolish, the début of power blogger, TV show host and JAM editor Rashmi Bansal. The book recounts the stories of 25 graduates of IIM Ahmedabad who have carved out entrepreneurial niches for themselves. As Bansal puts in, “in a larger sense entrepreneurship and indeed life is about always ‘staying hungry’ and of not letting yourself fall into a rut”. Among those profiled include Sanjiv Bikchandani of Naukri.com, R Subramaniam of Subhiksha, and Deepta Rangarajan of Iris. We wonder why there aren’t many women profiled in the book. Bansal, who is currently a “full-time writer” explains that the book was a project commissioned by CIIE at IIMA and the mandate was to look for entrepreneurs who are IIMA graduates, of which approximately only 10 percent were female. “Now, from that small pool, to find women who have excelled in corporate careers is hard enough (many downsize their ambitions somewhere along the way for family reasons); and the number of women entrepreneurs are even smaller! I think all this will change with time, but right now this is the reality.” Borrowing her title from Steve Jobs’ most famous piece of advice, Bansal, herself a journeyman on the road less travelled, rounds up with a smile, “It is easy to stay foolish. The world is such an interesting place, there is always something more to explore. And in this profession you can even pass that off as ‘work’.”

Lashings of History

Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni talks to NISHA PAUL about her book Palace of Illusions, based on the Mahabharata, where the protagonist is Draupadi. It took four years and a great deal of research to write, and has recently been published in India, while it was out abroad early this year.

What attracted you to write from Draupadi’s perspective?
I have been fascinated with Draupadi’s story ever since my grandfather related it to me when I was a child. Not only is her situation unique, as a queen married to five brothers, but so is her character and her resolute strength in the face of many misfortunes.

You have often written about strong women in your books, exploring their struggles and dilemmas. Are there any similarities between Draupadi’s character in the Mahabharata and women nowadays?
Certainly. Draupadi is a timeless character, and her attitudes and responses as I understand them and depict them in Palace of Illusions are quite contemporary. I think readers will find something of her in themselves. And her problems are not that different from that of modern Indian women – indeed, or of women everywhere.

There is an angle of forbidden love in your story. What was that which has not been discussed about Draupadi’s character in the Mahabharata?
Draupadi’s attraction to the forbidden – the man who is her husbands’ most powerful enemy – has been hinted at in the original Sanskrit Mahabharata, and referred to in the Bengali version by Kashiram Das. But I made it central to my story as it heightened the tragic yearning of Draupadi’s life. It also presented her with an important moral dilemma and heightened tension each time she met him.

Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni has just completed a children’s magical adventure novel titled Shadowland and is working on a short story set in Houston, Texas, where she lives. It features an Indian woman, her Texan boyfriend, and a stuffed raccoon that he loves and she can’t stand.

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