History, first hand

When you are 94 years old, every story that you relate can make for a bit of history. But for American journalist Phillips Talbot, memory itself is a veritable chunk of history. The journalist, who reported from India on the Partition for the Chicago Daily News, has now written a book about his days in the subcontinent during an historical era. Called An American Witness to India’s Partition, the book will be launched by Sage in New Delhi next week. Talbot, president emeritus, The Asia Society, USA, was assistant secretary of state for Near Eastern and South Asian affairs during the Kennedy era. A Padmashri awardee, he was in touch with Indian leaders, including Nehru and Gandhi. The book, not surprisingly, has been lauded even before it’s been launched. “(It is) a book to be read with feelings of both regret and pleasure as India celebrates her 60th year of independence,” writes Ainslie T. Embree, professor emeritus of History, Columbia University. “Regret for a different path that might have been taken, pleasure that things have turned out so well after the dark days of 1947.”

Dear John

If you like your theatre, you’d know about Barry John, the founder of Theatre Action Group (TAG). But Barry, who has directed countless plays and acted in a few films as well, is these days best known for having trained a man called Shah Rukh Khan. When SRK was a young boy and all wet behind the ears, he was with Barry’s vibrant theatre group in Delhi. And now we hear that the veteran director is going to get two new students. Actors Diya Mirza and Konkona Sen Sharma are apparently keen to join his theatre workshops. Diya has a good reason for that — the buzz has it that she is soon going to launch her own theatre production. And Konkona knows Barry, having worked with him while she was studying in Delhi. Barry has apparently asked Diya to rope in a few others, too. There’s hope for Bollywood yet. After all, Barry’s powers are such that his fan club believes he can even make a tree trunk emote. Is Govinda listening?

Web site

The students, it may now be said, were completely spaced out. Astronaut Sunita Williams was meeting Delhi school kids and it was quite possibly the best thing that had happened to them after the release of the last Harry Potter this summer. As Williams did her rounds of the schools, the children swamped her with questions. One little child, with a lisp that he was still to outgrow, stood up at one such function. “I have a question,” he announced. “If there is no gravity in space, how do spiders weave a web there?” Williams, we are told, was stumped. “Perhaps we should take a spider to space,” she replied. “And perhaps you should work on this,” she told the young lad. Williams — unlike one Miss Muffet — was not going to let a spider frighten her way.

Lime ‘n’ lemony

Who would have known that a foodie lurked within director Sagar Ballary? The man who directed Bheja Fry is now working on his new film Kachcha Limboo. And the connection between the two films, he says, is in the name — both have something to do with food. “But both belong to totally different genres,” he tells The Telegraph. Unlike Bheja Fry, Kachcha Limboo — which stars Atul Kulkarni and Sarika along with some child actors — caters to children. But Ballary hopes that the new film will re-endorse his credentials as a creative director. While many loved Bheja Fry, some wet blankets hastened to point out that it was rather close to a French film called Dinner Game. Ballary has decided to reply to his critics with the weapon he knows best — a new film. “Kachcha Limboo is 100 per cent my own. The script has been lying with me ever since my days at the Satyajit Ray Film and Television Institute in Calcutta when I wrote it. Nobody will have a chance to point a finger at this one,” he says. There may be a message in the name as well. Kachcha Limboo means a green lemon. And Ballary is out to prove that he, certainly, isn’t one.

Gosh, it’s Ghosh

If you can’t beat ’em, join ’em — that seems to be Bickram Ghosh’s new mantra. The percussionist, so far noted for his lightning fingers, is now seeking to make his voice heard. Bickram has sung a song for a children’s film Neel Rajar Deshe. The song was just right for him, for it included some percussive sounds. But, then, Bickram is not a complete novice when it comes to singing. When he was a child — and no doubt drumming on plain surfaces with his fingers — he was trained for a while by his mother. But, no, Bickram has no intentions of entering the world of vocalists. His hands are itching to get back to the tabla. A tune is all right, but the heat is where the beat is.