Come home Ronnie!

gtgt Whereas we are thrilled that Mumbai boy and Canadabased author Rohinton Mistry has been selected as the winner of the 2012 Neustadt International Prize for Literature previous winners have been the likes of Gabriel Garcia Marquez Octavio Paz and Max Frisch we have a confession to make we prefer Mistryrsquos singing to his writing For those who are not aware of the musical talent of the celebrated author of such books as Such a Fine Balance and Family Matters we must hasten to explain that back in the lsquo70s when the world was young and the grass was grown in Himachal Mumbai was the scene of some very vibrant rock concerts Those were the days when Remo Fernandez my sister Devieka Bhojwani and Sharon Prabhakar sang sweet and soulful protest songs about the Vietnam War Bangladesh and other issues The highlight of those evenings was the two Ronnies Rohinton Mistry Two very different Parsi boys who would separately do covers of Dylan anthems in very distinctive styles Debate was always rife about who did Dylan better Well my choice was Ronnie Mistry Ronnie Desai though equally talented did Dylan with a darkly mischievous spike And then the lsquo70s disappeared into yuppiness and it was only decades later that I realised that the soulful troubadour of Dylanrsquos melodies had immigrated and become the celebrated author whose books we like mdash but whose singing we sorely miss Come home Rohinton And bring your Dylan music sheets when you do And congrats for winning the Neustadt Prize Singers of that era earned pennies mdash and a free chai at the Xavierrsquos canteen Remembering Jyoti gtgt Yesterday marked the second death anniversary of Geetu Hindujarsquos youngest sibling Jyoti And the gallerist singer writer paid homage to it by posting her song Hope Faith Time and Me written by Jyoti and composed by her on a social networking site Geetu Hinduja right with her now late sister Jyoti ldquoShe died fighting breast cancer when she was just 38yearsold two years agordquo says Geetu ldquoAnd she dealt with her impending death and mortality in a way that was far beyond her years I remember her in a way that always celebrates the spirit with which she lived and diedrdquo Hinduja will launch her album of the same name on September 6 at Blue Frog Mumbai ldquoI have dedicated this album to herrdquo says Geetu ldquoIt is the title song of the album and it is a song that Jyoti wrote about her journey with cancerrdquo Ab dilli door nahin gtgt We recall being intrigued by a blind item a while ago regarding a Delhi based arms dealer who was allegedly wooing a married Mumbai based socialite Whereas the identity of the gentleman was known to us the woman in question remained a mystery Well now matters are clearer ever since the lady has reportedly moved into his Delhi farmhouse and is playing housekeeper and hostess and partner for all practical purposes She happens to be the wife of a Mumbaibased biz man who used to be closely associated read bag man with the scion of an erstwhile royal family ldquoHer absence in the Mumbai kitty party circuit is sorely feltrdquo our informant says Championrsquos League gtgt We were particularly pleased to receive former MiD DAY Chairman Khalid AH Ansarirsquos magnificent tome on Sachin Tendulkar Sachin Born To Bat edited by our MiD DAY colleague its ace sports editor Clayton Murzello Khalid AH Ansari with Sachin Tendulkar Like every thing Ansari does this too is lsquozara hatkersquo Rather than a straight out cricketing book this one will appeal to even some one unfamiliar with the sport And thatrsquos because Ansari in his inimitable way has imbued the book with a deeply probing academic curiosity about the universal human spirit and the nature of champions mdash as a Stanford alumni would ldquoI have long been intrigued by the fascinating conundrum of what makes a championrdquo writes Khalid in the prologue ldquoNot merely in sport but in any walk of life In other words what are the qualities that foster extraordinary and at times awesome achievementrdquo Sam Manekshaw And throughout the book the author attempts to excavate the psyche of extraordinary individuals as quoting form Nelson Mandela authorities from Sydney Universityrsquos Centre for the Mind and even Tony Blair One of our fondest memories as a rookie reporter and sub were of coming into the MiD DAY office early mornings to put the dayrsquos paper to bed and bumping in to a swashbuckling Khalid in sparkling white sportsgear just off the squash court In keeping with this alpha male sensibility the book is dedicated to the memory of Field Marshal Sam Manekshaw another extraordinary gentleman if ever there was one We like Of beds and bad boys gtgt So who was the winsome lass spotted with Pakistani fast bowler and eternal brat packer Shoaib Akhtar over the weekend at Bangkokrsquos hot and happening Bed supper club From all accounts she looked Indian and very pretty informs a fellow reveler Shoaib Akhtar And that a tired and emotional Akhtar read sozzled out of his mind couldnrsquot keep his hands off her Is this another notorious subcontinental cross border linkup u00a0