The city — sliced, diced and served with a dash of sauce
Malaika Arora
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Do models diet?
What do Priyanka Chopra, Malaika Arora, Milind Soman, Madhu Sapre and Gul Panag have in common? They all pay a great deal of attention to what they eat to maintain their chiselled bodies and radiant skin, but crash diets and fads, as one would imagine, is not what they resort to.
Gorgeous, a book by former model and Miss India International, Svetha Jaishankar, offers an insight into the lifestyles of these industry professionals along with many others from the modelling world. It has over a 100 healthy recipes divided into categories such as breakfast, salads, mains, sweet treats, etc, and will be released soon. An insider’s view of the heady world of fashion — now, that’s something we don’t come across too often.
Magical Sorcars
At a set replicating the ambience of an Egyptian death ceremony, the body of a girl lay covered in silk. At the command of the magician, it rose and stopped mid-air.
Then, after he cast a few spells and pulled the cloth off, the body vanished, only to emerge from a tiny box, a few seconds later. This weekend, 70-year-old magician PC Sorcar performed to a packed audience in Navi Mumbai. With his characteristic cake-y make-up and blingy costume, but altering his storytelling and production values, Sorcar kept the millennial audience glued.
His daughter Maneka, the ninth generation magician but the lone female one, performed contemporary tricks. Her quick repartee laced with comments on sexism and censorship, made her acts fun and edgy. Good to see desi magicians wow the Harry Potter generation.
Violin violence
Pic/Sneha Kharabe
Actors Ranveer Singh and Vaani Kapoor engage in friendly banter at a film promotion in Lower Parel yesterday.
Bebop away, Carlton Kitto
Kolkata’s jazz fraternity is in mourning. Carlton Kitto, Bebop Jazz guitarist, passed away yesterday at his residence after a prolonged illness. He was 73. A pioneer in the 1970s, he transformed the grammar of the genre with his band, The Louis Banks Brotherhood, which included Pam Craine and Louiz Banks. Kitto also jammed with greats like Sonny Rollins, Clark Terry, David Leibman, Larry Coryell, Chico Freeman and Charlie Byrd.
Carlton Kitto
Amyt Datta, celebrated guitarist and music teacher, was lucky to have learnt Western music theories from the guru himself in his early years. “A few years ago, I interviewed him for a small-time Bengali magazine. He appeared feeble but didn’t seem ill. The last time we spoke was a year ago when he recalled his music classes. We never connected after that and all of a sudden, I heard about his demise this morning (Monday),” shares Datta.
Kitto quit his job with the Indian Railways in Bengaluru in his 20s, and moved to Kolkata in 1973 to make music. Popular Kolkata restaurant Moulin Rouge on Park Street hired him for '600 per month. His band became a rage and soon, every haunt in the area introduced Jazz nights; it became a movement. He rues that Kitto wasn’t served his due. “He was the only living Bebop Jazz player in India but what did the system do when he was alive?” sighs Datta.
In a documentary made on his life, Kitto had revealed that he made Queen Elizabeth dance at a pub gig and had also jammed with Pandit Ravi Shankar. So long, Kitto.
Millennial fashion
With the shaadi season in full swing, we’ve been spotting fashion pop-ups by a dime a dozen. However, here’s one that could well give you your money’s worth. Ace designers Payal Singhal and Shaheen Abbas will co-host a preview of their festive collection at the Four Seasons Hotel this Thursday.
Singhal’s line, Pakizah, is replete with contemporary Indian wear and western separates (read: crotch pants, tunics and jackets) in raw silk and mul with pearl and mukaish embroidery. Meanwhile, Abbas reinterprets regal star-and-moon motifs in edgy, millennial-friendly diamond cocktail jewellery for her line, Chand Taara.
Aapla museum!
This diarist has come across, and read, several bilingual books in the past. But a bilingual newsletter? Well, that’s what caught the eye as we pored over a mound of emails that had flooded the inbox, in true Monday morning style.
A press release from Byculla’s Bhau Daji Lad City Museum citing a roundup of upcoming events for the week sported a distinct character, where the information was shared in both English and Marathi. We loved the novelty of the idea — the calendar appeared uncluttered with crisp language, clean design and no OTT terms that many tend to associate with museums.
Later in the day, as another event update reached us, we noticed a similar practice had been followed. We hope this idea helps woo more visitors into the doors of the city’s oldest museum.
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