Thursday, November 29, 2012

An Oberoi Lunch With Manisha Koirala




By Manuwant Choudhary

News of Manisha Koirala being taken to Jaslok Hospital in Bombay for suspected cancer is a bolt from the blue and for all her admirers a reason for concern.

I have admired Manisha Koirala for her beauty and as an actor...her roles in the film Bombay and 1942 A Love Story are breath-taking.

This special post is for her speedy recovery.

Bollywood has many talented actors but Manisha Koirala in her 20 year career is the only one who reminds us of  classic Bollywood beauties like Madhubala, Waheeda Rehman & Nargis.

Ofcourse, Manisha wasn't so lucky as them....she did some great films but there were those which were bad also.

She is a director's actor...a good director and a good script could do wonders.

And there is no denying that she is a talented actor otherwise how could a girl from remote Nepal come to India, get some training in classical dances and enter the big, bad world of Bollywood and make it big.

In Bollywood and India her famous Koirala surname doesn't count.

Koirala is good for winning elections in Nepal.

Here its talent and how the film goer's appreciate what you do.

Her role in Mani Ratnam's film Bombay - based on a love story between a Hindu boy and Muslim girl - was not just controversial but a super hit.

I happened to watch a pre-release of Bombay with the mullahs and the Shiv Sainiks as well as the edited post release.

But as a journalist I was not particularly lucky with Bollywood stars and models..they were always my toughest assigments...but Bombay is a place where you may just happen to bump into them.

And we owe Manisha an apology.

The newspaper I worked for once accidentally triggered a riot in Bombay.

Manisha was already under threat from fanatics for her role in the film Bombay...and the Times of India carried an intelligence report saying so.

And our newspaper that same afternoon carried a front page news item "Manisha Koirala Killed"....

Soon our office was flooded with telephone calls..even from Kathmandu.

Before we realised some violence broke out in Mohammed Ali Road and half of Bombay lowered their shutters.

Its only then we realised the `goof up'.

Someone had placed an advert for a film in which Manisha is killed...and the advert read like a news report...and accidentally the adtv at the side fell at the time of page-setting....and so what appeared was like a report by a staff reporter !

And Manisha Koirala herself called up our editor Behram Contractor, who apologised profusely.

But Manisha was kind and forgiving and she would always personally invite our editor for all her functions.

But this one goof-up got me an Oberoi  lunch with Manisha Koirala !

Nepal's Prime Minister was in town and Manisha was hosting a lunch in his honour and she invited our editor but our editor had not fully recovered from the goof up and so  he asked me if I could go in his place.

At the Oberoi Manisha wore a pastel peach chiffon saree and she looked pretty and graceful - much better then even her films.

But I was careful.. kept a very safe distance...I did not really know how to tell her I am a reporter from the newspaper that killed you.

But the Oberoi lunch was great.

I hope Manisha gets well soon.





Tuesday, November 27, 2012

Bal Thackeray & The Face-reader


By Manuwant Choudhary

Ever since the death of Bal Thackeray I have been feeling a bit uneasy but not because Bal Thackeray died but how he died.

This is so because 14 years ago I wrote an article that Bal Thackeray will not fall to a fanatics bullet but rather he would die of a heart attack.

At the time I was the Chief Reporter of the Afternoon Despatch & Courier and must be among the few journalists who never sought an interview with Bal Thackeray.

Early one morning I was informed by the receptionist that someone had come to see me so when I went to meet the guest I was surprised - my guest looked unusual - not the common man... bijli, sadak, paanee kind.

He wore a red-maroon robe, was darkish and had unkept rough hair - a sadhu or a tantrik - and he wore the rurakhsha that Bal Thackeray also carried.

But why would someone like that want to to meet a secular journalist?

His appearance could scare you so I looked closer and the sadhu was in fact young...maybe mid 30's...and he had large dark eyes and I decided to hear him out.

He told me he was a face-reader and that he was different from other astrologers or tantriks because he never took money from his customers at first but he would return when his prophecies would come true.

And then his clients would reward him suitably.

With him he carried a large register and in it he had written statements from eminent persons whose future he had foreseen.

He said he was `scientific' in his approach and wanted to keep a record of face-reading.

So in jest I asked him whether he had read Bal Thackeray's face and he replied `Yes'.

He asked me what I wanted to know.

And again just like that I asked him how would Bal Thackeray die?

And he replied. "Bal Thackeray will not be killed. He will die of a heart attack."

So when Bal Thackeray died I remembered the face-reader...

 I also reminisced my days as a cub reporter in Bombay.

The Shiv Sena - Bal Thackeray's party - was in power but it was Bal Thackeray who called the shots and we called it the `remote-controlled' government.

The governments decisions were in fact taken by one man - Bal Thackeray - so even reporters from English dailies had to read Bal Thackeray's newspaper - The Saamna - to find out what the Shiv Sena government would do next week.

I had already seen what Hate Politics can do to a city and as students we saw Bombay go up in smoke in the communal riots.

I have been chased by both Hindu and Muslim mobs in the lanes near the Metro cinema where we had gone out to get something to eat.

So I did not really care for India's politicians.

But I have tried to have an open mind and talk to even those whom I don't like.

Once I even helped Shiv Sainiks.

A group of Shiv Sainiks wanted to see me and again I was surprised so I asked them what brought them to me.

And they told me that they had some problems and they had actually gone to Matoshree to meet Bal Thackeray and there they met a senior journalist from India Today who advised them to see me.

So I asked them what was their problem and they said that the Shiv Sena government had destroyed their temple !

And the story took me to their homes near the Arthur Road prison.

The Shiv Sainiks belonged to the dalit community - India's lowest caste-  and it was they who kept the city clean.

But the conditions they themselves lived in were terrible.

10 persons slept in a single room and the public toilets were appalling.

Their leader Bal Thackeray had never visited them.

And they took me around their homes with the great respect and affection.

For a day I was Bal Thackeray !

In a restaurant they bought me a cold drink and told me how they became Shiv Sainiks.

Then they showed me a small temple the Shiv Sena government had destroyed.

As we stood there suddenly we saw Sanjay Dutt - the actor charged under the arms act for keeping and AK 47 - going into prison for his daily court appearance.

And you would imagine people running to meet Sanjay Dutt.

But the Shiv Sainiks just stood there and instead shouted , "arre Sanju idhaar aana..."

And Sanjay Dutt lankily walked all the way to meet us.

The Sainiks introduced me to Sanjay Dutt and Sanjay promised to pitch in to rebuild their temple.

Not the big industrialists but there were the honourable few who stood up to the might of Bal Thackeray.

Among them was my editor Behram Contractor.

Ofcourse, as an editor he would be worried when we did anti-Bal Thackeray stories because it was known that the Shiv Sena mobs would attack newspaper offices.

But he never stopped us from doing the stories.

And the stories would be carried prominently.

Bal Thackeray could be cruel in other ways too.

Like when a Muslim Sheriff of Bombay Mr. Khorakiwalla went to meet Bal Thackeray along with Bombay's editors to request him to stop his mobs from rioting and killing innocent people of Bombay, Bal Thackeray asked Mr. Khorakiwalla to pick up the stone next to his chair.

The Sherriff picked up the stone and Bal Thackeray told him, "Its from the Babri Masjid."

The Sherriff Mr. Khorakkiwalla is a strong personality and while leaving the Matoshree (Bal Thackeray's home) told Bal Thackeray that his home was encroaching on public space and if he did not remove the encroachments they would be demolished.

Bombay died when an entire city feebly accepted their new name Mumbai, without even a fight.

I felt sad.

Bombay was a great city made of great people.

How could they accept everything what Bal Thackeray says and get on with business.

Our editor did put up a fight and in our reports we would avoid using the word but rather call it the `city'. The Afternoon address at the rear still said Bombay.

The mornings were a challenge because coming up with headline news every morning is not really easy even in a place like Bombay with all its rain and problems.

So one morning as I got read I overheard on my landlords black & white TV a Doordarshan newsreader saying there was  a central government notification that people were free to call Bombay as Bombay.

As I got into the newsroom and tried to make a copy, something unusual happened.

My editor entered and this is something he never does but he asked me, "Manu what is the headline today?"

I showed him what I was writing and he made me get up and took my chair and wrote in his Busybee style...

BOMBAY IS BOMBAY, NOT MUMBAI.

The then Prime Minister Deve Gowda had secret parleys with Bal Thackeray and was visiting Bombay that day and when he addressed a press conference some journalists waved copies of the Afternoon newspaper.

It completely ruined the Prime Minister-Bal Thackeray meeting.

Bal Thackeray was quite false in many ways..but he enjoyed the trappings of power even when he was out of power.

He always made his speeches in Marathi and we journalists were expected to know Marathi.

But I did not know the language.

I almost lost my job.

I was asked to cover a Bal Thackeray presser and it was in Marathi.

Some kind journalists told me Bal Thackeray gives English interviews only to the BBC !

I tried my best to understand Bal Thackeray, minus the expletives, and wrote my piece.

Luckily, my report and the Times of India report looked similar.

I got to keep my job.

I never liked the Shiv Sena brand of politics.

Politics through hatred and fear.

So when Ramesh Kini was killed and Raj Thackeray, the nephew of Bal Thackeray, accused of the murder, it was a story that needed guts.

And I did my bit.

Its not easy to work under real threats but when I did the Ramesh Kini story even Shiv Sainiks helped me to translate Kini's Marathi letter into English.

I knew the Shiv Sena would lose the next elections.

But I have often thought about the face-reader and how Bal Thackeray would die.

I am a non-believer.

So once I shared this story with a senior journalist Mr. Ashok Desai and after hearing me he softly replied, "Extraordinary Co-incidents!"

Co-incidents or not but are we really supposed to have all the answers?

Like what happens after death?

Have Bal Thackeray and Kasab gone to heaven or to hell....or they are just around...laughing....because their kind of politics and hatred and brutality is not dead.

Its very much alive.







































Barbarta Ki Dhaal Thackeray - A Hindi Poem by Nagarjun





“बर्बरता की ढाल ठाकरे”

बाल ठाकरे! बाल ठाकरे!
कैसे फासिस्‍टी प्रभुओं की –
गला रहा है दाल ठाकरे!
अबे संभल जा, वो आ पहुंचा बाल ठाकरे!
सबने हां की, कौन ना करे!
छिप जा, मत तू उधर ताक रे!
शिव-सेना की वर्दी डाटे जमा रहा लय-ताल ठाकरे!
सभी डर गये, बजा रहा है गाल ठाकरे!
गूंज रही सह्याद्रि घाटियां, मचा रहा भूचाल ठाकरे!
मन ही मन कहते राजा जी; जिये भला सौ साल ठाकरे!
चुप है कवि, डरता है शायद, खींच नहीं ले खाल ठाकरे!
कौन नहीं फंसता है, देखें, बिछा चुका है जाल ठाकरे!
बाल ठाकरे! बाल ठाकरे! बाल ठाकरे! बाल ठाकरे!
बर्बरता की ढाल ठाकरे!
प्रजातंत्र का काल ठाकरे!
धन-पिशाच का इंगित पाकर ऊंचा करता भाल ठाकरे!
चला पूछने मुसोलिनी से अपने दिल का हाल ठाकरे!
बाल ठाकरे! बाल ठाकरे! बाल ठाकरे! बाल ठाकरे!

- नागार्जुन

Friday, November 16, 2012

Skyfall & The Bond Girls


By Manuwant Choudhary

I really wonder what it is about the James Bond formula that has kept us watching them over decades and enjoying them all.

For women it is James Bond and all his scruffiness but for men its obvious they go to check out the Bond girls.

I have noticed that his girls can be dangerous too.

But if you are James Bond you will live to tell the tale.

 Skyfall is the 23rd and I must say I enjoyed it because of the Bond girls.



36-year-old Naomie Harris plays Eve, a fully-trained British field agent who drives fast and draws her gun even faster. The London-born Harris says Eve "kind of sees herself as Bond's equal. She's not, but that's how she sees herself."  
Skyfall is interesting because of the action in Shanghai and Macau...and is a reminder that not Russia but China is where all the action is.

Also the storyline is deeper compared to The Spy Who Loved Me.

And James Bond's country home Skyfall from which the film gets its name gives James Bond a more earthy feel.

Harris is joined by 33-year-old Paris native Berenice Marlohe, who plays the alluring Severine.  The exotic beauty -- her mother is French and her father is Cambodian -- is making her English-language debut in the film.  Severine is employed by the villain, Raoul Silva, played by Oscar-winner Javier Bardem.


Of course, of late even Indian film makers have been attempting to make films dealing with  India's spy agents...like Vidya Balan plays the pregant spy in Kahani....

But no I'd prefer Marlohe anyday.

She is a stunner.




Saturday, November 10, 2012

Khulaasa News


By Manuwant Choudhary

I was there at Arvind Kejriwal's presser at the Press Club of India yesterday but there was a foul smell all over....so I asked Mr. Kejriwal about it.

AK: Yes, yes, I agree this presser is not going smoothly..these journalists are asking too many questions.

Me: But journalists are supposed to ask questions.

AK: No, no..they can ask questions but they are asking as though they are owners of HSBC.

Me: But sir, the HSBC is a great bank...why do you want it to be shut down. Actually, its the SBI which should be shut down.

AK: Why shut down SBI? They should remain open since it takes months to open an account there. But HSBC should be shut down because they open accounts over telephone.

Me: But that means HSBC is so efficient.

AK: Efficient my foot. I hate HSBC.....they are efficiently corrupt.

Me: You mean they are like Ambani Brothers?

AK: yes, yes, and how dare they open accounts of Ambani brothers?

Me: But its obvious that Ambani's have the money...surely the poor can't open accounts at HSBC.

AK: Exactly, thats why they should be shut.

Me: But ok ok, I wanted to know why this place smells...you could have held this presser at Lodhi Gardens...

AK: Look I dont know where its coming from....but all I know is that journalists are asking too many quetions and they are also saying the `Khulaasa' has not been verified by them.

Me: But exactly, you name all the biggies and do you want even the jouranlists to be charged for defamation..but this place smells awful.

AK: I really don't know...

Me: But Ambani's say their rivals are leaking wrong information...so do you think the smell is something to do with rivalries.

AK: What rivalry...the Congress is in their pocket.

Me: But that means Ambani's must have big pockets.

AK: Big and deep?



Me: No, but still I don't know where this smell is coming from...its hard to breathe.

AK: I am serving the country so I don't smell anything except corruption.

Me: But surely, you cant expect all HSBC employees to become like you...they sit in nice offices..and its doesn't smell there....and no one shouts there..they play instrumental music...

AK: Exactly, thats why SBI is better..there are crowds and crowds and smell and shouts...and fights....

Me: I really don't understand all this..so do you think all income tax officers should also quit the government?

AK: I didn't say that...they are serving the country so they should not quit.

Me: But you mean only HSBC employees need to quit to serve the country.

AK: Don't waste my time...I have to do 500 khulasaa's in the next few days...

Me: But your Khulasaa's smell too much..what did you eat? Did you eat a Dabur product?

A.K.: Dabur, never...they are so corrupt ...these Burmans.....I never eat Dabur.

Me: But that means you prefer their rivals - Baidyanath..

A.K. Yes, I like their churan.

(how to make this special Kejriwal churan)


redients

Method
  1. Heat a non-stick pan, add the carom seeds, cumin seeds, fennel seeds, dill seeds and fenugreek seeds and dry roast on a medium flame for 3 to 4 mins.
  2. Remove from the flame, add the remaining ingredients and mix well.
  3. Blend in a mixer too a smooth powder.
  4. Store in an airtight jar.
  5. Take 1/2-1 tsp after meal or if necessary anytime.
Member Photo

Thursday, November 8, 2012

My Pakistan Yatra



By Manuwant Choudhary

I have never been to Pakistan but one day I would like to make the journey.

But not like chief minister Nitish Kumar flying to Dubai and then Karachi...or even meeting Asif Ali Zardari...or going to the tomb of Jinnah.

Mine would be different.

Of course, Laloo does not like Nitish Kumar's Pakistan yatra and plays the spoiler, "What will happen if the Pakistani's come to know that Nitish is Narendra Modi's friend?"

Laloo has himself been to Pakistan and understands the yatra is good if you want to win the Muslim votes.

But he is worried Nitish is trying to win over his Muslim voters.

But in the BJP and the NDA there are those who hate Jinnah and there are those who love Jinnah.

I would say like L.K. Advani and Jaswant Singh....and Nitish Kumar love Jinnah.

And they also love Jinnah's politics of divide.

That is why Nitish divided Bihar.

But now Nitish claims to be  a champion to demand Bihar's rights so he held the Adhikar Rally recently.

But with Bihar's official machinery working overtime to make the rally a success...some called it the `Adhikari' Rally.

I have been invited to Pakistan before by friends close to Pakistan's then President Parvez Musharraf but somehow I did not feel like visiting.

For so many years we have heard about governments trying to improve people to people contacts to improve bilateral relations but I am not so sure if its easy to get a visa yet.

But I would not like to fly to take a train to Pakistan - I would like to drive into Pakistan through the Wagah border - ignoring the boot parade of  soldiers on both sides.

And I would get out of my car to meet a Punjab farmer in Pakistan..have tea with him.

Then I would like to visit Mohenjodaro and Harrappa - the great civilisations - that we have lost.

See the Great Bath.

Learn a little more about town planning.

And also see the snow in Kashmir in Pakistan.


And finally, I would like to meet the other Bhutto - Fatima - but not interview her like CNN does sitting at a distance of 30 feet but take her out for coffee.











Wednesday, November 7, 2012

Mark Kramer On How To Fix Capitalism


By Manuwant Choudhary

I am not interested in Obama's second term or his pep talks but accidentally I happened to `gate crash' at a talk held at the Marriott in Gurgaon `How To Fix Capitalism'.

I must perhaps be the only farmer attending but it was refreshing to hear an American Mark Kramer talk about how the corporates must reach out to the farmers and must explore what he calls `Shared Value'.

"Corporates generally ignore social issues and even when they don't they address the concerns through philanthropy or through Corporate Social Responsibility but all this is just is about dividing up the pie, its not about increasing productivity but just about shifting away of profits."

Mr. Kramer says, "We need to change the rules of the business and treat social problems like business problems."

"Solving social problems through charity and not through business is stupid."

Mr. Kramer is currently on a global lecture on his ideas convincing corporates to think differently and even solve the worlds problems and not compromise on their own  profits.

He said that now there are companies who analyse not just the profits of a project but also its social impact.

He gave the example on Novartis in India who manufacture drugs but realised they had no access to their buyers so what they did is train hundreds of health workers (not salesmen) to make people aware of their health needs and how to get tests done and this has resulted in them reaching out to millions in a short time and thereby increasing their profits as well.

"Similarly, ICICI bank gives farmers crop insurance and pays insurance on the basis of satellite imagery of the crop region and this has brought profits to ICICI as well, while farmers also gain."

"Then Nestle many years ago set up a network of milk farmers in one district Moga at a time when there were no roads and now they have enough milk supply for their factory."

"Mahindra & Mahindra builds infrastructure in poor farmer homes and takes bank the loan interest at harvest time and not EMI..."

Then he spoke of Cocoa growers whose yeild is just 20 per cent of the potential and chocolate companies are now helping farmers to increase their yield....so what was essentially a farmers problem in now being addressed by corporates thereby improving the incomes of farmers and also their own profits.

Mr. Kramer is the founder of Foundations Strategy Group (FSG) and believes governments and civil societies  are not the best vehicles to solve social problems.

"Development without business is stupid...I am glad that we are getting beyond that..."

With a global meltdown and with governments having little money to splurge its Mr. Kramers ideas that can take the world ahead.

In the Q & A session one person questioned Mr. Kramers ideas being relevant in India where most groups are suspicious of corporates and so there are no `shared values'

Mr. Kramer said its fine if people don't share the same values, what he is talking about is `shared value' (Value as in gains)

But one listener was just not convinced and he said charity in India means  the left hand should not know what the right hand does.

Mr. Kramer only smiled.