Manhattan mayhem: View from Sundaram Tagore’s home

Sandy vs Neelam: view from London

When I heard that the tip of a crane was dangling like the Sword of Damocles in West 57th Street in New York, I immediately telephoned my friend Gautam Patwa. His cell could not be reached but he confirmed my fears by email: “Yes. The crane is right across my building. We were evacuated and I am currently at a friend’s place on 3rd Avenue.”

Gautam is a short walk from Lexington Hotel where executive vice-president Sam Bhadha assured me: “We all are quite safe and were spared by Sandy. Having worked in the hospitality industry for 30 years, it was heartening to see our hotel associates braving floods and winds to reach the hotel so they could look after their guests. Full credit to the city and the mayor for their preparedness. The city really rallied together.”

Another close friend, gallery owner Sundaram Tagore, whose flight to Hong Kong was cancelled, sent me pictures of fallen trees in front of his home in East 41st Street.

“I did not realise the extent of the damage to come,” Sundaram admitted. “We are very fortunate that we’re high on a hill and on a dead-end street that’s very protected. (But) about a dozen very old, beautiful trees were uprooted, many of them smashing cars and buildings. Lower Manhattan and the outer boroughs, especially Queens and Staten Island, suffered terribly. Our gallery in Chelsea is closed — we have no idea when power will be restored.”

From Princeton, I had a message from Dinesh Sharma, author of a biography of Obama (whom he tips to win by a narrow margin): “Big storm has been devastating the region... it has left thousands if not millions out of power and in shelters. We got lucky here (but) many trees are down.”

Across the world in Chennai, which had been hit by Hurricane Neelam, Sangeeta Datta, who had gone from London for a film festival but got out in time, found the initial storm quite beautiful and romantic. “But heavy rain and a couple of demonstrations meant many people couldn’t get to the festival.”

Plain speak: Krishnan Srinivasan

Hearty talk

Britain’s greatest newspaper editor, the late Sir David English, taught us that the best way to tell a story in a newspaper is “through people”.

But Krishnan Srinivasan, who has come from Calcutta to London and has been discussing his new book, Diplomatic Channels, tells me he despairs of even papers such as the International Herald Tribune devoting two columns to a “human interest story” from India. I guess he means papers should not trivialise coverage of foreign affairs.

But there does seem to be plenty of human interest in Diplomatic Channels, based partly on the 13 months in 1994-95 when Srinivasan was India’s foreign secretary.

In this section , where he is “exceptionally forthright about the people I had dealings with”, he describes the President of India, “then a person called S.D. Sharma as ‘suffering from incontinence’” and “Prime Minister Narasimha Rao as a ‘cold fish’. ”

Srinivasan no longer feels the need to couch his assessments in diplomatic language. Instead, he goes in for (welcome) plain speaking.

“We are very far from being a great power...” he responded to one query. “We have come to the realisation that permanent membership of the security council is not going to drop into our laps from heaven... We are punching more or less around our weight and not above our weight.”

He went back to 1994 when “the United States were interested in stopping Indian missile development; and they were at the same time ignoring the supply of missiles to Pakistan from China. They also did not want to know about the dangers of the rise of the Taliban, despite my warning them repeatedly.”

Now it was too late. “In Afghanistan it’s inevitable that the Taliban will reassert itself very strongly — I think there is no way that can be prevented... you will find, however, the old Northern Alliance will reassert itself... what you will find are spheres of influence — some typically Afghan arrangement.”

Plain speak: Krishnan SrinivasanMouth amuser: Andy Varma with Sharmila TagoreBright fall: Grosvenor Square

Food first

The expression, amuse-bouche — French for “mouth amuser” — was new to me until I first saw it on a menu devised by chef Andy Varma at Chakra, his Indian restaurant in Notting Hill Gate in London.

It is a single, bite-sized delicacy offered by the chef before the meal proper begins. Last week, his amuse-bouche was rajma galouti for a joint lunch attended by past and present staff from The Daily Telegraph plus members of the Indian Journalists’ Association.

Guests included Sharmila Tagore, who told me she is a dab hand at making machher jhol. She had a chat with Andy, a Calcutta boy whose mother is well known to Rinku (Sharmila’s pet name).

Another guest was Faramerz Dabhoiwala, a history don at Exeter College, Oxford, who has flown to India where he will speak today at the Mumbai LitFest about his bestselling work of scholarship, The Origins of Sex.

Andy Varma gave us a geography lesson explaining how the lunch menu represented a culinary journey around India: “India is a vast subcontinent where each state reflects the regional ethnicity of its people and the food they consume. The gastronomical journey starts with soft rajma galouti kebabs from the great Uttar Pradesh city of Lucknow... this competes with the Amritsari kali mirch ke tukre from the mighty tandoor of the Punjab... it is to Delhi for the palak paneer.”

The journey also included Lamb Gola Masala, Masala Machli, Black Daal and Lamb Biryani before Andy “made a special trip to my home city of Calcutta where I learnt to make Chakra Chana from chhole...”.

With “elderflower & rose sorbet as pre-dessert”, and “mango kulfi, gulab jamun and macchiato chocolate pot” as dessert, those present were tempted to buy a return ticket.

Plain speak: Krishnan SrinivasanMouth amuser: Andy Varma with Sharmila TagoreBright fall: Grosvenor Square

Party season

With Diwali only days away, the party season has started, at least for Indians. The clocks have changed to GMT, and the leaves are fluttering down from the trees which will soon be bare. The Hindujas are back in town ready to light the diya. All is well with the world. Officially, the British recession is over. One might as well look at the bright side.

Sweet Samit

Indians should be kind to Samit Patel, 27, who may earn a Test place after scoring his maiden hundred for England in the drawn game against India A at the Brabourne Stadium. Samit has been dropped from the England side in the past by coach Andy Flower because of his weight problem and his expanding girth.

So, I do hope his hosts will not tempt him with a plate heaped with laddoos, barfis and jalebis for Diwali. Maybe the poor boy should be permitted only the occasional midnight feast.

Tittle tattle

A cover story in the new Tatler, which is getting increasingly outrageous, lists “150 people you might like to sleep with”.

Only one Indian/Pakistani girl has made the grade — 30-year-old Fatima Bhutto. She will be gratified she has been placed in the Top Ten.