Bong fare

If you believe that the most important part of the Indian Parliament is the central hall, perish the thought. The more popular corner, a little bird tells us, is the canteen. So when a group of journos from Bengal recently urged the minister for railways, Dinesh Trivedi, to add some Bengali delicacies to the menu, he swung into action at once. Trivedi — always ready to please his friends in the media — added luchi to the menu. On some days, luchis are served with aloor dum, and on other days, with chholar dal. But since the northerners in the kitchen haven’t quite mastered the art of making chholar dal, they call it chholey. The press corps, however, is not complaining. Trivedi, after all, has given them something to chew on.

Sarod strains

This young British sarod artiste is going great guns. After numerous collaborations with the likes of musicians Jay-Z, Beyonce and Talvin Singh, Soumik Datta, 27, is ready to launch his latest album called Sounds of Bengal. Datta, a disciple of sarod maestro Buddhadeb Dasgupta and an alum of Trinity College of Music, London, travelled across Bengal to capture its sounds — baul, ballads, folk tunes, conversations and so on — for the collection. And he has teamed up with Indian percussionist Arif Khan, son of tabla maestro Ustad Sabbir Khan, to accompany him. Come December, the duo will organise tours to promote the album, which is interspersed with narrative pieces. Way to go, Soumik!

Va va vroom

All you F1 enthusiasts, get set to get a taste of the real thing in Bangalore later this month. Telecom firm Vodafone is getting ace racer Lewis Hamilton to the city to showcase his motor-racing skills. And unlike the earlier occasions when Hamilton drove a Mercedes SL 63, this time he will set the tracks on fire in his Formula One car. There was, of course, one hitch that had to be worked around while organising the event — Bangalore’s chaotic traffic. The city airport is located a good 50km from Banerghatta Road, the event’s venue. So Hamilton will be airlifted to the venue when he lands in Bangalore. Will the country’s political bigwigs start demanding the same whenever they visit the city?

 

 

Sizzling Lisa

Model-turned actress Lisa Haydon is back on the silver screen. And how. Haydon, who made her debut in the chick flick, Aisha, seems to have shed all her, ahem, inhibitions in her second film. She has not only has she done a sizzling item number for David Dhawan’s latest film, Rascals, she has even been shown with a sexy bare back. “Coming from a modelling background, I have grown comfortable with my body. And now, as an actor, I am here to fulfil the director’s creative vision,” explains Haydon. With so many nubile young newbies wanting to realise a director’s “creative vision” Paoli Dam (of Chhatrak fame) will sure have some competition.

 

Family trait

It’s all in the genes. Ask Ranbir Kapoor, the chocolate boy hero, who is the grandson of legendary actor and director Raj Kapoor. It seems the Kapoor lad, who has made a name for himself among Bollywood’s young crop of actors, never misses a chance to get behind the camera. Recently, he donned the role of the director to shoot a small scene for his upcoming film Rockstar. When director Imtiaz Ali and his team were filming a complicated scene in Verona, he is said to have stepped in and shot it with elan. But then he isn’t a complete rookie as far as direction is concerned. After all, before he debuted as an actor in Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s Saawariya, Kapoor had worked as an assistant director in Bhansali’s critically acclaimed film Black. Looks like it won’t be long before Kapoor, like his grandfather before him, starts revelling in the dual role of the actor-auteur.