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We catch up with romance novelist Nikita Singh, who was in the city to promote her latest book, Letters to My Ex Haven’t we all had friends, couples-so-much-in-love, who develop cold feet at the last moment and then call off the nuptials? This is also the story of Nidhi and Abhay; Nidhi calls off her engagement, leaving Abhay without a clue of what she is thinking. Unable to say things aloud, Nidhi starts writing letters to Abhay. But doesn’t post them. Nikita Singh’s Letters to My Ex allows her protagonists to think, ponder and come to terms with the baggage that is bogging them down. The New York-based author was in the city to promote her book, published by HarperCollins. We caught up with the author, who works as a social media manager for a solar manufacturing company. And, moonlights as a romance novelist. More about the book... You have said in the book that it was easier to get into Nidhi’s head. Is she like you? Nidhi is not like me. We share some common traits thou

Chatting up journalist Vivek Sabnis, who has brought out the second edition of Pune Nostalgia calendar, which has some rare photos of the city The reason I call myself a documentary photographer is the idea of how photographs contain and participate in history,” says Catherine Opie, an American artist. Journalist Vivek Sabnis might not have harboured the same idea when he went about collecting old photographs of the city he was born and brought up in. But as Sabnis’ collection grew and he put them together into two pictorial calendars – Pune Nostalgia (2017 and 2018), he hopes that they will serve in documenting the city’s history. “For the month of March, we have chosen Vasant Talkies image, which completes seven decades this year. When the picture was clicked in 1975, the talkies was screening Amitabh Bachchan-Shashi Kapoor-starrer Deewar. Outside the theatre, you can see a stack of cycles — a testimony to the city’s badge — Cyclincha Shahar or a City of Bicycles. In four d

Interestingly, people living on the either side of the river bed are known for their quirks. Ambika Shaligram meets a few residents of the Cantonment area who share colourful anecdotes about their neighbourhood, which recently observed 200 years of its formation Do the sepia toned images remind you of an era gone by? But they are also historically significant — one image is of MG Road, Camp and another of an iconic landmark, Manney’s bookstore, which closed down six years ago. The other establishment in the image is of Royal Hotel which downed its shutters several decades ago. These images are from journalist Vivek Sabnis’ collection and have now been used in Pune Dinadarshika or Pune Nostalgia calendar 2018. The images are significant for another reason. In November 2017, we observed the 200 years of formation of Camp or Pune Cantonment. ‘Observed’ because that also marked the end of the Peshwai rule. Till early 2000, Camp was the ‘it’ place to be. Those who lived on the oth

Surely, this will elicit laughter or maybe a stunned expression to say the least — a guy attends a spoken word poetry session and talks of Kacchi Dabeli, and how it didn’t work up his appetite. That’s Omkar Rege, a stand-up comedian and a passionate writer, working in a digital media company. During his stand-up comedy act, organised by BhaDiPa (Bharatiya Digital Party) on International Women’s Day in Pune, Omkar turned to Dabeli again; apps that deliver our food and keep us updated every second, to remind us that ‘your delivery is on its way’. We catch up with him to know more about his writing, poetry and ingenious humour. From working class to comedy Omkar, who hails from Goa, calls himself a ‘working class guy’ and turned to stand-up comedy slowly and steadily. “I loved being funny from my core. But I never thought I would actually go out there and do it. I always wanted a stable job, doing the stuff that I liked, which was writing,” says he. Considering that Omkar is

Maati is happy for her friend, Sulakshana who is pregnant within five months of marriage. “When will it be my turn?” She wants an answer to her question. This is the plotline of the Hindi play, Maati, directed by Mahesh Dattani. It is an adaptation of the original Spansish drama, Yerma, by Federico Garcia Lorca. It will be staged in Pune at Sudarshan Rangmanch by students of The Drama School, Mumbai (DSM). We chat up with Dattani about Maati, questions of abundance versus scarcity of land and what it means to be a ‘proper’ woman. Excerpts... When did you first see or read Yerma? I first saw a play by Lorca when I was in my early 20s. It was directed by Ebrahim Alkazi. The play was The House of Bernarda Alba translated as Din Ke Andhere. It was a brilliant interpretation with powerful actors in the cast. I read Lorca’s rural trilogy at least a decade later and was completely taken up by Blood Wedding. At some point, a well-known theatre actress in Bengaluru suggested that I dir

Ashwin Sanghi’s Keepers of the Kalachakra, published by Westland, has hit the stands. The author in a tete-e-tete with us, explains the various strands of the stories explored in the book. Anyone who has read Ashwin Sanghi knows that the author links together politics, theology, mythology, economics and politics in a page-turner book. His latest, Keepers of the Kalachakra is no different, where he talks about quantum physics and spirituality (and making it amazingly simple to understand) in bringing out another best-seller. Ahead of his Pune visit to promote the book, we catch up with Sanghi. Excerpts from the conversation: How was the book written — in the non-linear format — the way we read it? It was initially written in linear fashion and then sliced and presented in a non-linear format. Given that the book was about Kalachakra or the wheel of time, I did not wish to present the story as a straight line progression. When you are writing about various periods of history

On World Autism Awareness Day, we speak with the families of autistic kids who explain the challenges they face while rearing their young ones About Autism Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a neurological and developmental disorder that begins early in childhood and lasts throughout a person’s life. It affects how a person acts and interacts with others, communicates, and learns. It is called a ‘spectrum’ disorder because people with ASD can have a range of symptoms. For instance, they may have problems in communication, or they do not maintain eye contact. They may also have restricted interests and repetitive behaviour. They may spend a lot of time putting things in order, or they may say the same sentence again and again. They may often seem to be in their ‘own world’. The causes of ASD are not known. Research suggests that both genes and environment play important roles. There is currently no one standard treatment for ASD. There are many ways to increase your child’s abi

Remember Mean Girls and its school groupism, Us vs Her game, in which Cady (Lindsay Lohan) finds herself entangled? Advertising professional Vedashree Khambete-Sharma’s Swear You Won’t Tell? runs on similar lines, but is far more sinister. The soft target is Avantika Pandit up against Aisha Juneja and her gang of girls. Avantika’s only friend, Laxmi Swaminathan too goes over to Aisha’s group, thus making her schooling years very difficult. Avantika’s path crosses with Aisha’s again; she as a journalist sent to cover Aisha’s designer collection. In the midst of all this, Avantika learns that Laxmi’s dead. And, thus begins the chase, to find out what happened to her. Published by HarperCollins, Swear You Won’t Tell? blends school cliques with grown-ups’ inability to let bygones be bygones. Over to Khambete-Sharma... Please tell us about your relationship with Mumbai/Bombay. The story couldn’t have been set anywhere else, but Mumbai. I’ve lived in Mumbai since it was Bombay, wh

In the backdrop of World Art Day (April 15), we speak with Mamta Nainy, who has written a book that weaves in various forms, styles and works of painters, all adding to the richness of our cultural heritage If you want to learn more about Indian art — ‘From cave to contemporary paintings’ and all that comes in between like Ajanta-Ellora murals, Mughal miniatures, Tanjore paintings, folk and tribal art, then A Brush with Indian Art, can be your guide. Published by Puffin Books and written by Mamta Nainy, the book is intended for school kids, but has lessons and information nuggets that could impress the adults too. Written simply and lucidly and illustrated wonderfully (Aniruddha Mukherjee), A Brush with... has also put together art works of masters and various styles that are still surviving in different parts of the country. Nainy, who is a consulting editor with Katha, takes us into the world of doodles, sketches, drawings and paintings... Your bio mentions that you dood

Bharatanatyam dancer Guru Lakshmi Viswanathan is going to perform in the city on Sunday. She talks about researching, exploring and experimenting in the dance form Known for her abhinaya, Guru Lakshmi Viswanathan has also used it to describe her Bharatanatyam dance performance in Amritanjali Festival of Classical Dance and Music to be held in the city on Sunday. Explaining what ‘AbhinayManjaree’ means, Viswanathan says, “Manjaree is a Sanskrit word for ‘bouquet’. I am going to show different moods of shringar. My dance forte is abhinaya.” Elaborating on the classical and new pieces that she is including in the performance, the Sangeet Natak Akademi award winner says, “I hope to show different moods and shades of nayika bhava — pining for her lover, talking to her lover and her anger at being spurned and the nayika’s relationship with sakhi or her confidante. I have included one ‘linga stuti’ in which the nayika addresses her questions to Shiva. There is another piece on Radha-Kr

Ahead of World Heritage Day, Ambika Shaligram chats with conservation and cultural history experts to know how we could reach out to more youngsters and engage them with our tangible and intangible heritage History and heritage are two terms that overlap and encompass wide-ranging ideas, thoughts, philosophies and tangible and intangible assets. Therefore sharing of stories and the transfer of knowledge from and between generations is a crucial step in cultural development. This is what the International Council on Monuments and Sites aims to achieve through celebration of World Heritage Day on April 18. So how do we learn about our heritage and history? The answer is — by visiting monuments, making a trip to art galleries and museums, attending a dance programme to understand our cultural legacy, or walking down the bazaars; learning to make a generation-old recipe of dal or achar; or getting acquainted with our family tree! The routes to find our roots and connect with them

Jugaad, Maharashtra Cultural Centre’s new Marathi play, focuses on the struggle for power and social mobilisation Our New Year kicked off with yet another lesson in history and identity politics. The Koregaon-Bhima riots told us that a 200-year-old battle can still create rifts in society. It’s certainly not a new issue for a caste-ridden society like ours. But it’s worrisome how these battles are picked, and the stories are given a spin. Especially, as history is now another ‘holy cow’ that cannot be questioned. This is incidentally also a dialogue from the Marathi play Jugaad, written and directed by Nitin Agnihotri. Advocate Hanmantrao (brilliantly played by Chinmay Mandlekar) belonging to the Nalmachi tribe from a fictitious hamlet, seeks out history professor Vilasrao (Hrishikesh Joshi, superb), luring him with an offer to write a short story set in the hamlet and then willy-nilly persuading him to pen a piece documenting their lives. Eventually, Hanmantrao compels the pr

Congress MP and author, Dr Shashi Tharoor says that the true nature of Hinduism is inclusive and we need to reclaim our religion from those who are committing acts of bigotry and violence in its name. In his book, Why I am a Hindu, published by Aleph Book Company, Dr Shashi Tharoor examines his own beliefs and also puts forth important aspects of Hinduism, namely, Purusharthas and Bhakti, and also summarises lessons from Bhagwad Gita and Swami Vivekananda’s teachings. The Congress MP also explores the myriad manifestations of political Hinduism in modern era. Here, he talks about the concept of secularism, the Hinduism practised by BJP, RSS and his party’s functionaries. Excerpts from an interview... Why has the inclusion of ‘secularism’ (42nd Constitutional amendment) in the preamble to the Constitution not gone down well with the political parties? It is true that the inclusion of ‘secularism’ through the 42nd Constitutional amendment hasn’t gone down well with some politi

Pune writer Sucharita Dutta-Asane talks about her new book Cast Out and Other Stories, and how her characters discover themselves he book jacket of Cast Out and Other Stories reads — A menstruating woman is cast out of a village and its temple. How does she react? Does her act make the idol impure? Another blurb says, Raater moton kaalo (dark as the night) Complexion and the woman. How does she choose to respond? These two pieces are enough to label the writer Sucharita Dutta-Asane as ‘feminist’ or ‘women’s writer’. When asked about it, Asane says, “You know, we keep hearing of such labels like literary writer, commercial fiction writer, women’s writer. I think a writer is a writer, first of all. But, yes, I would like to point out that women tell stories differently. In that sense, I am a woman writer. Our issues, we understand a little differently, from the way men would understand. So in that sense, yes, I am a women’s writer. But if you want to put a tag that would sell, then n

Monsoons are beautiful and hold a special place in our hearts. Ambika Shaligram tries to gather some rain-soaked stories from different regions of the country where people share their happy experiences and also some tough situations they had to face Aren’t we all looking skywards hoping that the dark clouds — a harbinger of rain — bring some good news? The heat and dust of Indian summer can make us wilt and droop, but the moment monsoon arrives, it rejuvenates and cheers us. But along with the fresh greenery glistening with water droplets, building facades looking squeaky clean after being washed by the downpour, children dancing and rejoicing in the rain, people enjoying hot chai and roasted corn, what we also have to deal with are rising water levels of rivers, water logging on roads, animals being displaced from their habitat, people taking shelter on rooftops, commuters struggling to reach home. Rains can be beautiful but they can also bring disaster. Here are a few rain

Manjiri Prabhu’s love for stray dogs and the way people around her reacted to them helped her pen a new dystopian world, ‘altklug’. Prabhu, who’s hosting a private launch of her new book, Revolt of the Lamebren on June 9, says that with this, she is stepping into a new domain. “I have written cosy mysteries so far. But Revolt of the Lamebren is different in many ways. It is the first time that I have written a dystopian — a futuristic reality — novel. With this book, I am also being published by Readomania, which is relatively a new publishing house,” says Prabhu. The Revolt of the Lamebren is the first of a trilogy series called The Super Dome Chronicles. Prabhu, who hasn’t read much of the dystopian genre, except for Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale and George Orwell’s 1984, says, “What I have written in Revolt of the Lamebren is a reverse image of the world that we are living in. In our world, a dog’s one year is equivalent to seven human years. In Revolt... I have writte

Filmmaker Vivek Agnihotri released a film on naxalism-Maoism — Buddha in a traffic jam — in 2016. However, while working on the film, he faced many hurdles. According to him, post-release too, he didn’t find much support from the film industry. Agnihotri was then approached by publishers to write a book on his experiences. So in Urban Naxals, published by Garuda Prakashan, Agnihotri looks at the larger picture of the foreign funding and how India’s educational institutes are the hotbeds of naxalism. In Pune to launch the book, the former Marxist talks about the direct and indirect naxals in our midst and the agencies that foment this thought process. Excerpts from the chat... Can you tell us about your perspective on naxalism? Who is an urban naxal? I have dedicated 10 years of my life to understand this issue. We were making a film on naxalism in jungles. While I was researching on the subject, I figured out there is a threat to the internal security of India from urban naxal