Prime South: Tidings From The Southern States

In the last 20 odd years, the fabled structure has been reduced to a glorified trafficisland. Emissions from thousands of vehicles have damaged the stucco and plaster work. Andit is was only after powdered chunks of plaster fell off one of the four minarets that theauthorities decided to get their act together. Now, the tourism and urban developmentagencies have decided to stop traffic around the monument and make it a pedestrian-onlyzone.

ASI deputy superintendent G.S. Narasimhan admits that it was the vehicular traffic andpollution that have been posing a threat to the monument. Even vibrations caused by theheavy vehicular traffic have been gently rocking the monument.

But will the government’s efforts succeed? dcp (traffic) Dinakar Prasad isconfident. Even local legislator Assaduddin Owaisi is optimistic. He says the people willbe prepared for a little inconvenience considering the monument is still the best knownshowcase of the city around the world.

It razes the myth about drop-dead gorgeous gals and hunks who walk the ramp. It tells youthat they are gastronomes, each fastidious about their favourite cuisine and do notexactly nibble at green salads or sandwiches. That they are connoisseurs of delicaciesseems to have also amazed Prasad Bidapa, fashion guru and co-author of the book, CatwalkCuisine. "We don’t know where they put it away, but models are some of thebiggest eaters I know. The girls especially. Feeding them during rehearsals is an art initself," reads his introduction to the book.

The book has 63 models (some of them wonderful cooks too and describe recipes indetail) and the ‘eclectic and exciting menus’ for meals they would love to tuckinto. Here’s a glimpse: Sara Corner loves to gorge on funghi marinati, a marinatedmushroom salad, moong and paneer chaat, and an unusual watermelon salad, flavoured withrum or vodka; Madhu Sapre and Milind Soman prefer a traditional Maharashtrian meal(Madhu’s favourite snack is Sabudana Vade with green chutney); Marc Robinson revelsin Anglo-Indian food (yellow coconut rice, curry and chicken chilli fry); Lisa Ray adoresItalian food (broccoli quiche) and banoffee pie (banana-toffee cream pie) for dessert,while Lara Dutta enjoys her mother’s homemade Indian food (pepper prawns, chickencurry and gaajar burfi).

Says Prasad: "I am mad about cook books and have a wide and expensive collection(of these books), so I thought of a cook book with recipes of models." But there wasa snag: Prasad himself is not a good cook. So, he asked Parvana Boga Noorani, an oldfriend, who agreed to test the recipes. It was not, however, an easy task. "Lots ofmodels drove us mad by not giving us (recipes) on time or giving the right recipes. Parvana must get the credit because she called each one at least twenty times, and spoketo their mothers or aunts to get the recipes right," he said. But Prasad is notcomplaining. "I thought I had an insight into the psyche of every model (when thefinal manuscript was ready)," says he. There’s something for the wannabe modelstool. He’s devoted one chapter with nuggets about the fashion industry, on how to bea successful model and life after modelling.   

More good news for stage-struck Chennai. A new acting school, no less, started by MagicLantern, a local theatre group that successfully staged the unwieldy Ponniyin Selvan, Tamil author Kalki’s hugely successful serialised novel.

The Magic Lantern Actors’ Studio will train aspirants to act on stage and performin front of a camera. Star-struck youngsters in Chennai and surrounding areas can now lookforward to testing this studio’s promise to be a one-stop shop for every aspect ofperformance, physical and mental—acting, emoting, dancing, and stunts—it’sall thrown in.

The eight-week course includes in its curriculum an introduction to the language andthe grammar of filmmaking in terms of shot language, camera movement, lighting and so on.Other aspects related to performance, such as yoga, breathing and voice exercises, linedelivery, movement and martial arts, stunts and relaxation techniques, are on the syllabusas well.

You must be over 18 and prepared for a physically and mentally gruelling programme, saythe course directors. Each course will handle about 20 students, selected after a briefinterview and audition.

To be run at the Alliance Francaise de Chennai, the school has an additionalattraction: it boasts of the likes of Tamil star Nasser and stuntman ‘Vikram’Dharma among visiting faculty.

Loved ones are just a click away for the homesick nris. Dearindia.com, an online mailservice, carries messages that are sent from any location on the globe to recipients inIndia without an internet access. The sender keys in his message in the format provided onthe site, a printout of which is mailed to the addressee in India, free of cost and on thesame day. Says K.M. Joseph Kayyalachakom, the young industrialist who started the novelventure in 1999: "We receive around one thousand mails per day on an average."An add-on service allows people to choose greeting cards from the site and pay online.

Radio City, India’s first private FM radio station, was recently launched inBangalore. A brainchild of Music Broadcast Private Limited (mbpl), with star as thecontent supplier, Radio City’s round the clock entertainment programming is foreverybody and tries to maintain the feel and taste of the city. Peter Mukerjea of starfeels that FM radio will do to radio what satellite TV did to television."Radio’s strength is its immense flexibility, adaptability and suitability for amodern life," says Mukerjea. Well, daily doses of geet, gyaan, and gossip aresuitable for any life.

After Chennai and Hyderabad, it is now Bangalore’s turn to have theLifestyle Store (of the famous international retail chain Landmark Group, Dubai). Spreadover 42,000 square feet, Lifestyle Store has garments, health and beauty products,homeware, a children’s department, footwear and a music department. To offer somemoments of relaxation while shopping Qwiky’s Coffee Island, part of the ChimiyoChains, the first in the city, offers exotic coffees and snacks.

To attempt a new genre and win a prestigious international award is itself aunique feat. But for the picture to find a place in the collection of the US President isnothing short of a miracle. Bangalore’s Jaigopal Varma won the international awardinstituted by the Colour Pencil Society of US last year. It is a pre-eminent award givenfor colour pencil sketches, a medium that is only just beginning to become a part of themainframe art form globally.

Though hailing from a virtual painters guild (his mother is the granddaughter of theone and only Raja Ravi Varma), Jaigopal has had no formal training in painting. His firstexposure to colour pencil sketches happened in 1992 on a trip to the US and he startedworking in the versatile medium in 1994. Says he: "Any effect can be achieved bycolour pencil. Very fine detailed work can be done with it. It can simulate the smoothnessof the airbrush, the richness of oil, the softness of pastels and the fluidity of watercolour."

His painting titled Pillars Within, a depiction of the sculpted pillars in a ruinedSouth Indian Siva temple in the Shimoga forests, won him the award. And then came thee-mail from the former US President Bill Clinton, requesting the picture for his privatecollection. "But I could only send a signed print of the painting that had alreadyfound a buyer by them," says Jaigopal. Even Clinton had to settle for the copy!