Rajdeep booked!

And now that Rajdeep and Sagarika have gone on leave and their departure from CNNIBN the channel they built with their excellence and credibility is passing into new hands sources say that Sardesai has almost inked a contract with Penguinrsquos Chiki Sarkar to write a bookAnd though no one knows what itrsquos subject is an informed guess would be that it would cover the world of media and politics and their intersectionRajdeep Sardesai andSagarika GhoseMeanwhile rumour has it that he is receiving regular calls from a large Delhibased media group with holdings in TV and publishing that appears to be on a signing spree given its high profile recent acquisitionsBirthday celebrations all roundldquoIt was at a birthday dinner at my homerdquo says author Laxmi Dhaul A Family Affair about this picture that features some stalwarts of Mumbairsquos intelligentsia and creative worlds like philanthropist and cultural warrior Asha Sheth author and columnist Sidharth Bhatia India Psychedelic and his wife the publisher of GQ AlmonaLaxmi Dhaulrsquos birthday partyldquoActually Sidharth and me both share a birthday and this was at my home near the CCI last week We played a lot of music from the 70s and 80s Asha was her effervescent self and had just come in from the Amrita SherGil exhibition Jeroo Mulla who teaches at the Sophia Polytechnic had just delivered a lecture on lsquoThe language of loversquo and everyone was in a great moodrdquo We likeThe gift of the gabOur attention was brought to one aspect of stardom that hardly gets reported on stars and their relationship with teleprompters apparently Akshay Kumar insists on one even for a twoline dialogue both Amitabh and Shekhar Suman prefer that their Hindi dialogues be written in the Devanagari script and not the usual RomanSalman Khan andAkshay KumarShah Rukh meanwhile is reported to prefer the presence of a teleprompter but improvises considerably while using it to add flavour and freshness to his deliveryAmitabh Bachchan andShah Rukh KhanAnd the cake goes to Salman who does not take the assistance of a teleprompter at all Apparently even his lengthy Big Boss speeches were all done impromptu Thatrsquos called having the gift of the gabIn praise of artisan breadAnd apropos of absolutely nothing at all herersquos to artisan bread Bread made with the reverence of a priest murmuring his morning prayer bread that imparts the wisdom of the patient lover who knows all things come to those who wait bread that crackles its approval when you tear at its crust it with your hands lsquowellbred breadrsquo as Jamie Oliver calls itlsquoItrsquos a term you see a lot in the food world these days along with lsquocraftrsquo lsquofreshrsquo and the vaguest of all lsquorealrsquo says the Brit megafoodie chef lsquoTheyrsquore usually used to signify care expertise and quality of ingredientsrsquo Recently in Mumbai wersquove noticed a few bakeries and patisseries advertising the availability of artisan bread and we have to admit our heart has given a little whoop of delightBecause truth be told we love bread Crackly crusty toasty freshlybaked bread warm from the ovens of life carrying the fragrance of morning we can think of nothing better at breakfast than a loaf of bread a pat of Olive oil a smack of Brie and a few oliveshellip so herersquos to Mumbai embracing artisan bread Give us this day our dailyhellipUnfair attackItrsquos sad when peoplersquos careers and reputations are besmirched to grab eyeballs Our attention was brought to a spurious attempt to publicise the India release of the 2012 Canadian film lsquoThe World Before Herrsquo by depicting well known Mumbaibased cosmetic physician Jamuna Pai in poor lightJamuna PaiThe documentary is a look into the lives of two young women who participate in two very different types of training regimes one as a Miss India contestant and the other as a militant Hindu nationalist and appears to be a sincere attempt at getting under their skinsAishwarya Rai Bachchan PICAFPUnfortunately its trailer shows Pai a longtime consultant to the Miss India campaign advising a participant about her facial harmony and then coaxing her to relax while shersquos receiving dermal fillers Many newborn evangelists and faux activists have seen this as an example of lsquofemale subjugationrsquoRelax guys no one forces beauty pageant participants to enlist and when they do they know they are going to be put through a few months of gruelling preparation including back breaking exercises and gruelling dietsAnd for as many of those who think these pageants lsquodegradersquo women there are others who believe that they in fact empower girls and afford them a world of opportunities Ask Aishwarya Priyanka Sushmita etc Above all every participant signs a consent form before she sees PaiCosmetic intervention like makeup is a matter of personal choice and if people want to tilt swords at the lsquoUgliness beneath the beauty mythrsquo it would be more fruitful to question deeper issues that degrade women than attack a practicing professional engaged for a taskIn any case if you slip in a video camera while a procedure is being carried out be it a root canal or a knee replacement surgery the results would be pretty lsquodisturbingrsquo if not more for the uninitiated viewer Herersquos hoping the film provokes deeper thought and does not trivialise the issue of what ails women today