As a student in the UK, Anil Dharker remembers being enraged by the way India looked and sounded in the book 'An Area of Darkness'. "When you are an Indian abroad , you become super patriotic ," said Dharker while introducing Nobel laureate V S Naipaul at a function in South Mumbai last week. In conversation with moderator Farrukh Dhondy , Naipaul , the Trinidadian-B ritish writer of Indian descent , discussed several things , including the process and form of writing , his Nobel speech and even his cat Augustus . The writer , who confessed that he was a fan of the "sharp , pointed prose " of 16th century literature , had received the cat as a gift several years ago . As it was scrawny and had undergone treatment , "I decided to name him Augustus after the Roman emperor who became king after his empire had fallen ," said Naipaul . "And then , I realized that it was a common name for cats ."
Alter Echo
Nothing can put off a theatre actor more than the ringing of a mobile phone during a show. This was quiet evident during Tom Alter's solo performance in director M Saeed Alam's play 'Maulana Azad', based on the life of the freedom fighter , at Y B Chavan Centre the previous Friday . Whenever a cellphone rang-and this happened quite a few times-Alter would link the next dialogue with it. At one point , it rang when he was recounting Azad's agony at his wife's death in Kolkata while he was in jail . "After my release , I went straight to my wife's grave to say fateha (prayer for the dead ) in her honour ," said Alter and then the cellphone rang again . Vexed , Alter added , "Lekin iss cellphone ka fateha kaun padhega? Please switch off your mobile phone ," he pleaded .
Master of Arts
Master Bhagwan , Hindi filmdom's much-toasted funster whose birth anniversary in underway , was a quintessential Mumbai mulga. Born in Dadar , Bhagwan Palav was deeply steeped in the girangaon culture of the textile mills that then dotted the Dadar-Parel landscape . He and his brother Shankarrao were acclaimed wrestlers (therefore , the honorific 'master' ) and trained young children in the art of dhishum-dhishum . Master Bhagwan joined films and , before long , set the cash registers jingling with his daredevil stunts , recall veteran cinema buffs. However , it was Raj Kapoor whose remark that a good social entertainer was not Master Bhagwan's cup of chai prompted him to join mainstream Hindi cinema . Stung by the rebuff , Master Bhagwan wrote 'Albela' , a tragicomic story of a wannabe film actor . The film became a top grosser in the 1950s. Bhagwan's famous dance steps , immortalized in 'Bholi surat dil ke khote' from the same film , inspired greats such as Amitabh Bachchan and Kamal Hasan in succeeding years . Master Bhagwan spent the last years of his life in his Dadar chawl . He would often recall his rise and decline in Hindi filmdom , peppering the narrative with hearty laughs and bitter-sweet memories . Straight from 'Albela', it seemed .
Ship Shape
That a sailor's life is full of surprises , pleasant and unpleasant , is known . A layman's imagination of the threats and challenges at sea , though , is far different from what a sailor actually faces . A recent media interaction with Lieutenant Commander Abhilash Tomy , the first sailor to set forth on a solo, non-stop circumnavigation , burst quite a few myths about sailing . A journalist asked , "What do you do on the ship when you are alone ? Don't you get bored ?" Tomy clarified that there is barely an idle moment on the boat after one sails , rests , cooks, repairs and so on . One has to rest and sleep when there is time , as the next day can be sleepless if the weather turns , he said . Another reporter with a Titanic hangover asked what if his ship were faced with an iceberg ? Well , he said , now sailors get an iceberg alert way in advance so that they can steer clear of it. And what if big fish attack the boat ? My dear friend , another sailor now chose to reply on Tomy's behalf , big fish attack boats and ships only in the movies .
Cloud Red
At a recent visit to Byculla Market , this correspondent experienced an unfortunate downpour . She was buying lemons from a street vendor when she felt something rain down on her . No prizes for guessing it wasn't rain . The 'cloudburst ' had occurred somewhere around the fourth storey of the building in whose shadow the vendor had set up shop . A betel-chewing resident of the building had coolly expectorated out of his window , unconcerned about the natural trajectory his bloody spittle was to follow. The lemon vendor sympathetically handed her some paper with which to mop up the mess , and pointed to the multi-coloured beach umbrella hoisted over his stack of lemons , saying , "That's why we have the umbrella - not for rain or sun - but the daily shower of paan we receive ." Bet the Met can't forecast that .
(Contributed by Sharmila Ganesan-Ram , Mohammed Wajihuddin, Ambarish Mishra, Chinmayi Shalya and Joeanna Rebello Fernandes. Compiled by Rucha Biju Chitrodia)
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