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He may not come back with a medal, but India will still be proud. Sitarist Gaurav Mazumdar is Athens-bound for the Olympics. And no, he doesn’t double as an athlete there. The 39-year-old Mazumdar has been handpicked by his guru Ravi Shankar to play the raga Nat Bhairavi, Shankar’s own composition, as the flags unfurl at the Olympic opening ceremony. Mazumdar replaces Anoushka Shankar, who was originally scheduled to play, but backed out due to personal reasons. Indian performers (of the musical, not the sporting kind) are not new to the Olympics. Ravi Shankar himself, and tabla maestro Zakir Hussain have performed at previous ceremonies. Anoushka’s loss is Mazumdar’s gain. Note that.
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| Zadie Smith |
It happens to the best of writers. But not to Zadie Smith. The luminous author has pooh-poohed rumours of a writer’s block, and insists she is on the way to bringing out another book, her third. Smith’s first offering, White Teeth, was as widely acclaimed as her second one, The Autograph Man, was not. And considering she hadn’t written anything in the last 20 months, rumours went that the words weren’t flowing too easily. Not now, though. Last week, Smith said she had just begun her novel, On Beauty, and should finish writing by January 2005. “We’ll see what happens after that,” she said. We too, Ms Smith.
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| Saif Ali Khan |
Lion heart
Saif Ali Khan Those of you who have been turning up your noses at Saif Ali Khan’s gyrations on screen, hang down your heads. For Sharmila Tagore and Tiger Pataudi’s son has lately been shining in quite another cultural field — sculpture. Saif is a participant at an ongoing street exhibition of lions in Singapore — fortunately of the inanimate kind. Saif’s colourful fibreglass lion has attracted considerable attention. Pride of lions, pride of Tiger.
