Words worth

Jayant who? Jayant Sankrityayana, that’s who. The young man who just walked away with the inaugural New Writing Award instituted by The Little Magazine, in case you didn’t know.

The award made Sankrityayana, an automobile designer from Pune, richer by Rs 30,000, and saw him take home a bronze sculpture by sculptor K.S. Radhakrishnan. Sankrityayana, a 40-year-old bachelor who also plays the guitar for a jazz outfit, received the award ? to be made an annual affair from now on ? for his story Tsunami, published in The Little Magazine in 2004.

Now, for all you potential writers out there who have been procrastinating from setting pen on paper because of ‘too much work’, that’s a lesson. Someone has just proved that it’s possible to write prose even after hours of looking under the car hood and plucking a few strings on the stage. So go write.

Twinkle toes

In case you were wondering what Deepal Shaw has been up to lately, we have news for you. The Baby Doll of Indian music videos was last seen at Byculla Jail in Mumbai a few days ago, as an ambassador for Avitoko, a Mumbai-based organisation that works for underprivileged children and prison inmates, shaking hands with prisoners and cavorting around from cell to cell like there was no tomorrow.

A noble gesture, by all means. But guess why she was there in the first place? Apparently, Shaw had dropped into the jail to organise a workshop on theatre and acting, apart from usual reasons like studying in-house living conditions in jails and interacting with women prisoners.

Now, isn’t that worth some serious thought? For who would have imagined prison inmates taking acting lessons from someone known more for the length of her skirt than for her range of talent?

But, just like all her music videos, no offence meant.

Changing roles

It’s curious how the wheels of fortune move. There’s Sourav Ganguly, morosely contemplating a plunging careergraph. And there’s Naghma, who’s forever reinventing herself. The actor, once closely associated with the former skipper, has found a novel way to enter the Hindi heartland. The one-hit Bollywood wonder but reigning superstar of the south is the new hearthrob of Bhojpuri films. After making her debut last year with the superhit Panditji, she is currently busy with Saira Banu’s debut Bhojpuri production, choreograph Saroj Khan’s film, as well as Deepak Sawant’s debut film along with Amitabh Bachchan and Hema Malini. “Hindi films no longer offer roles of substance to a female character,” says Naghma, who started her film career in 1989 with Baaghi opposite Salman Khan. “Plus, the target audience of UP and Bihar is bigger than most film markets.” How’s that for cow-belt chutzpah?

Arm candy

Salman Rushdie is a much-envied man. There are some who fervently wish they could write like him, and there are others who passionately wish they had a wife like his. After all, young Padma Lakshmi ? tall, dark and handsome ? is the stuff that a great many dreams are made of. Rushdie would agree, for our man clearly enjoys the company of talented young women. Recently, when Padma Lakshmi was out of town, Rushdie was seen in New York with the upcoming tabla player, Suphala. There was no great surprise there, though, for the writer has famously described her as “The next big thing”. But to what? Or, rather, to whom?