Ashok Banker

Reel-life intrigue

Writers and filmmakers aren’t getting along too well in Mumbai at the moment. First there was Vidhu Vinod Chopra saying he wanted to beat up Maximum City author Suketu Mehta and ban his book, because of Mehta’s expos? on Bollywood in his multiple award-winning book. And now Ramayan remixer Ashok Banker claims that Mahesh Bhatt is the father of his (Banker’s) long-lost sibling. The plot reads like a Banker potboiler ? Banker’s mother, Seventies model Shiela Ray, was forced to abort her child from an illicit relationship (with Bhatt) in the seventh month of pregnancy but the baby emerged alive, was given to a Bandra fisherman, and is now untraceable. Bhatt’s response? Banker’s looking for publicity for his (Banker’s) forthcoming film about his mother, Beautiful Ugly.

It’s raining awards

It rained awards on Indian authors at this year’s Grinzane Cavour Awards in Piedmont, Italy. Anita Desai, Siddharth Dhanvant Shanghvi and Rupa Bajwa are among a number of authors from all over the world who picked up this prestigious Italian award this year. Desai received the International Prize Una vita per la letterature (A life in literature) and 20-something literary pinups Shanghvi and Bajwa won Debutant Author awards for The Last Song of Dusk and The Sari Shop respectively. Both Bajwa and Shanghvi have done the Indian literary establishment proud; The Sari Shop has previously won the Commonwealth Writer’s Prize for Best First Book in the regional round (Eurasia) and The Last Song of Dusk won the Betty Trask award. Both authors are currently at work on their second novels, Bajwa at home in Amritsar and Shanghvi in California, though he makes occasional trips to Canada to watch whales and hummingbirds.

Despite the fact that she gets horrifically ill whenever she sets foot in India, Liz Hurley has decided to get married in Jaipur early next year. Guests are requested to take Gelusil bottles for the Versace-clad bride.

That thing they do

The Americans have awards for everything, they really do. In which other country would you find an award for 'The Most Philosophical Kindergartener?’ And like most other brain-related contests in the US, the winner was a desi. Five-year-old Shruti Indiresan won her Socrates-successor prize with an essay where she wrote that happiness and beauty both came from truthfulness.

Sania Mirza

For the record

It can’t be easy being Sania Mirza ? if you’re India’s best-known (and richest) female sportsperson, everything you do, (eg. win one match at a prestigious tournament) makes history, and every day is full of a billion expectations. In these times, it becomes important to set achievable goals in diverse fields. Take the example of international tennis glamour-girl Maria Sharapova, no stranger to pressure herself. No matter what else she achieves defending her title this year at Wimbledon, she can go home happy, knowing that she has topped her personal best grunting record with an impressive grunt of 101.2 decibels.

AWARD OF THE WEEK

Goes to Aradeep Chatterjee, a 21-year-old homeopathy student from Calcutta, recently invited to join a National Cancer Institute (US) panel to speak on psorinum therapy for homeopathic cancer treatment.