I like the word spring. It carries such promise with it. Spring is the season of dewy newness. Winter is on its way out and summer is still far away. Spring is the beautiful in-between period of wonder and transformation, of Holi and basant, of crispness and vibrancy. The leaves rejuvenate on the tree branches, the birdsong gets louder and anything seems possible. I also think of spring in another sense – as a coiled tension-filled device, full of potential energy waiting to be converted into kinetic energy. This March, our team taps into both these understandings of spring – freshness and momentum – and serves up what we hope will propel you into an upbeat, forward thinking mood.

The focus of this issue is on young sparks – rising stars across the arts and entertainment horizon that we predict are going to shine in the months and years ahead. Future gazing is not new for us at Verve. Over the past 13 years, we’ve had a pretty good track record of identifying tomorrow’s talent just before it begins its inevitable rise to the top. This particular list has my Spidey sense tingling crazily. I see confidence without cockiness, excellence without entitlement. These are young individuals who are goal-oriented and humble, media savvy, but not matlabi. Having grown up in internet and mobile India, they are expansive in their scope of their connectedness to each other and the world at large.

I observe Revanta, Rhys, Sonakshi, Alisha, Shane and Rohini at their photo session at the ITC Grand Central in Mumbai. They all meet each other for the first time at 4 p.m. on February 16. By 5 p.m. they are comfortably horsing around. Numbers are exchanged, creative collaborations are planned and once they get back home, the conversations will surely continue on Facebook. Spontaneously, Rhys gets up on the terrace parapet and plays his saxophone. He is silhouetted against the setting sun and the working class families living across the road in crowded Parel lean out of their windows to listen. As the sound travels across the air, two worlds connect. The tableau takes me back to the Kala Ghoda festival that ended the previous day.

Here too, families and music come together in a celebration of the urban artscape. During the Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy concert on the steps of the Asiatic Library, Farhan Akhtar leaps up on stage as a surprise item and the crowd goes delirious with joy. Kala Ghoda is egalitarian – since it is a pedestrian week-long festival with free entry to all its events, it is one of the few social spaces in Mumbai for citizens across class and other divides to interact in close proximity. I find this year’s festival to be a far more eloquent response than the peace marches/war rallies that immediately followed the 26/11 attacks. The tragedy is omnipresent; it is reflected in the art installations on display in the parking lot and in what is said and unsaid in several question and answer sessions following specific literary events. But at the same time, I also encounter a fierce defiance and a genuine sense of enjoyment. The thousands of mobile-clutching hands that sway as Farhan belts out Rock On are comforting. This is my city and these are my people and I am connected to them. This much I know if nothing else: if I fall, they will lift me up. The child sitting on his father’s shoulders in front of me turns around beaming and gives me the victory sign.

Spring fever is infectious; perhaps more than a season, spring is a state of mind and I see freshness all around in the ideas and accomplishments of young India. Nidhi Singh, who I knew several years ago as a Star News anchor, is now an eco-friendly entrepreneur. She along with business partner Gaurav Gupta, has created Indigreen – a label that fuses organic hand-painted Bollywood poster design, environmentally friendly messages and organic khadi, supports Climate Project India and provides employment to rural women. Another social entrepreneur, Oxford-returned Dhruv Lakra has just set up Mirakle Couriers, which only employs the deaf as delivery persons. In the world of sport, cricketers like 20-year-old Dhawal Kulkarni are breaking into the Indian national team while 16-year-old Yuki Bhambri is India’s first junior Australian Open champion and the world number one junior tennis player.

It’s the age of ‘Asinnocence’, as Sona Bahadur puts it, and if cover girl Asin’s smouldering images in this issue don’t perk you up, her refreshing candour surely will. In a conversation with Verve, the 23-year-old diva makes no bones about the scale of her ambitions. I also see freshness in the erotically charged works of T Venkanna and the video-game based art of Eva and Franco Mattes, in Anurag Kashyap’s mesmerising take on desire (please see Dev.D if you haven’t!), in the experimental approaches to food that 26-year-old chefs like Abedin Sham (Wich Latte) and Aashiyana Shroff (Dragonfly, Vong Wong) are taking after returning to India from New York and London respectively and in the quirky spin on Indian fashion taken by Verve stylists Sohiny and Apsara in this month’s electrifying fashion section. Shot in a gleaming Tarapur factory and on the streets on Bandra, the backgrounds are as innovative as the clothes they showcase.

REALITY CHECK
Seated next to actor Arjun Bajwa (Fashion) and Miss World 2008 runner up Parvathy Omanakuttan at a city-wide interschool personality contest, we begin discussing career graphs. Arjun talks to me about how he is trying to carefully craft his career one film at a time, keeping a longer term vision of balancing commercial interests with job satisfaction. Parvathy is on a Miss World high but Bollywood is clearly where her sights are set. The kids on stage put an end to all conversation before long – they are astonishingly good and it’s a tough choice for us as judges. How can you compare a brick-smashing taekwondo champ with an awe-inspiring elastic break-dancer? There are question and answer rounds of course, but as judges, we are quite amazed by both – the preparedness and spontaneity – of the contestants. Reality television culture and Bollywood are big influencers in the way several of the contestants chose to pitch themselves. The Kangana Jalwa walk, the “can you repeat the question” or “good evening to everyone” ruses are regular tricks of the trade. What impresses me though, is how many of them choose not to do so, speaking instead about their feelings for their city, pollution, science or music with passion and guilelessness.

MUST-DO CARTIER
In Delhi, at the newly opened Cartier store at Emporio, the attendants are helpful but not overtly intrusive. Perhaps I should consider an iconic love bracelet for myself this Valentine’s Day, I ponder, but am distracted by the well-stocked reading lounge and curl up into a corner to explore the world of vintage automobiles. The light oak and bronze Bruno Moinard-designed store has Baccarat chandeliers, fresh flowers and a live violinist; small touches that make all the difference when one wants to buy into a dream. Patrick Normand, Cartier’s managing director for the Middle East and South Asia, tells me that he is very bullish on India. My speculation about the current spending capacity of India’s modern maharajas and maharanis is blunted by the three jewellery purchases I witness taking place during my 15-minute store visit. Did someone say recession?

Subscribe to Verve Magazine or buy the Verve issue on stands now!