Anupam Kher at the Kala Ghoda Festival

Kala Ghoda Festival - 12/02/2012

On the last day of the Kala Ghoda Festival, we had a chance to be present at Anupam Kher's session on his book, "The Best Thing About You is You". 

The entire session was pretty inspirational and highly entertaining. We have tried to include some conversation threads and quotes Anupam Kher had shared during his conversation with Mr. Dharker:

- 'An event or an action fails. A person never fails!'

- 'I failed once in 10th standard, got a 38% in my graduation. Recently I was called to the 'Kellogg Business School' and I started my talk with these words,"While you're all scholars, I had scored 38% in my graduation. This shows that I must have done something good in my job.'

- 'We always talk about the power of success but we always under-estimate the power of failure. I learnt from the power of failure'

- 'One should celebrate his or her failure. That takes out the fear of failure from your mind.'

- 'I lost my father 2 days back. But I still wanted to come to the Kala Ghoda Festival because I wanted to live my life the way my father would have loved it. He loved to see my photos in the newspapers and he had a big album of all my photos, wherever he could find them. He was my best friend and would always be.'

- 'Don't put your happiness in somebody's hands. You should be in-charge of your happiness'

- 'We exist, we don't live. We need to start living.'

- 'If you try, you risk failure. If you don't, you ensure it' - Anupam Kher quotes Osho

- 'All your dreams can come true. You just have to work hard enough.'

- 'Stardom to me came as a bonus, I was just enjoying my work.' on quoting Robert De' niro

- 'When you're yourself, there's nothing you can hide'

- 'Love is not a 4 letter word, HOPE is!'

Tamasha in Bandargaon - Book Review

After a really long time I read a book in less than a week , because I had to write this review by that time and also mainly I couldn't keep the book down. "Tamasha in Bandargaon" by first time writer Navneet Jagannathan is a fun read to say the least. The author has spent his early years in Mumbai and Bangalore and that is truly reflected in his writing. Also it gives me immense sadistic pleasure if I find a typo or grammatical error in a book, but it is hard to do so with this one . The language is simple and grammar impeccable. The grammar nazi in me is super upset.

The back cover will tell you that the book is R.K.Narayan's Malgudi Days revisited . Yes , you could say that and constant comparison will happen but this book is no short of brilliant . It leaves you with a little afterglow , a sheepish smile on your face and a strong faith in happy endings. There is no Swami , but there is a Srinivasan . There is no strict father but there is a tyrant father in law , Sitaram Sajjanpur.There is no submissive mother but a strong affirmative Lakshibai. Its a book about the "Mango" people, "Aam" aadmi . There is tons of wry humour , strange situations and unpredictable madness. Each page has you gripped and brings along a new twist to the story.

This is a story of the fictitious suburb of Bandargaon hidden somewhere in the midst of Mumbai. Go back 20 years and you can say this is exactly how Mumbai used to be then .There's Sunrise Apartment with all its co-operative society politics. There's a slum nearby , where the help for these apartments come from . A gambling den which runs in the ruins of a corporation building and of course, a tea stall that is the center of all gossip and important meetings. A love triangle blooming among the youthful characters and a fight to woo the girl's family. Each character is beautifully defined and crisp with just the right blend of humour and color. 

Its a complete laugh riot to see how all these characters and situations intertwine with each other and troubles and worries of their journey disappear as they move on with their lives. This book has a "Nukkad" feel to it , with a lot of past to present transitions as the story of each character develops. The humour is more real and situational , not to forget easy to relate with rather than being over the top cheeky. It has a certain cuteness about it. A sequel could actually do well and maybe a TV series could follow - that is the drill isn't it? 

My personal favorite characters would be Suresh Borkari , the troubled son-in-law of an MLA candidate struggling to maintain a balance between keeping his wife and father in law both happy and in turn upsetting both. Chagan the roadside romeo and rogue will also bring out the soft corner in you and put a smile on your face more than once. The characters are the win - win about this book which will keep you hooked and leave you wanting for more. With this I end my review and suggest you to read this book with a cup of warm Chai in your hand.  

      " Yet another day ebbed in Bandargaon. And the music - the music played on "

Nirali N.

Our Twitter friend

Visit her blog: http://mytalentissowasted.blogspot.in