Mathures Paul

"There is something about Kolkata and India that gets into your blood!” J Chloe Braun has been writing articles and short stories most of her life. Having spent 12 years working with underprivileged women and children, her journals and memories gave birth to Hurdy Gurdy, a fictional account of one brave woman’s escape from spousal abuse. Raised in the small Armenian community, one of her aunts by marriage was an Anglo Indian. “Along with my parents she had a tremendous influence on me — encouraging me to read by buying me books, to be always willing to read my work, to study music and to think! Kolkata was a great place to grow up in – with its rich culture and hospitable people. Most of my teachers were Anglo Indians – my English teacher was tremendous. She not only taught us to speak proper English but to love the language as well.” The seeds for Hurdy Gurdy was sowed at a writing competition. “The topic (of the competition) was ‘Unusual customs or practices’, or something like ...

The father of a theory that is now the life of many consumer goods, Lothi Zadeh shows no signs of slowing down at 85. Over to Mathures Paul Lotfi Zadeh was born before his time. Whenever he’d come up with a theory, the world wouldn’t readily accept it. But the scientist’s Fuzzy Logic theory has stood the test of time and is now the life of many electronic consumer goods. He isn’t your comic book image of the driven scientist with the unkept hair and manic eyes. But he is 85 and shows no signs of slowing down. Born in 1921 in Baku, Azerbaijan, Zadeh is a mathematician, computer scientist and professor at the University of California at Berkeley. He grew up in Iran, studied at Alborz High School and Tehran University and moved to the USA in the mid-1940s. Since the 1950s he’s been with Berkeley. “Russia has gone down. In America people now speak of China and India. I get my share of news from Radio Liberty. It broadcasts serious news and no propaganda. I wish there was a channel like thi...

Mathures Paul meets cartoonist Mangesh Tendulkar Proud of his creations, Mangesh Tendulkar walks around Tilak Hall in Maharastra Nivas explaining to visitors the power of cartoons. An opposite of his renowned playwright brother Vijay Tendulkar, 70-year-old Mangesh is in town to host his first exhibition. You have read much about Anant Pai and RK Laxman. Their contribution to Indian comics and cartoons is immense. But that of Tendulkar is equally important. He is a master in the art of single frames. He doesn’t enjoy the advantage of white space that exists between panels in a comic book. Much can happen between frames — Superman might die, Hagar give up drinking and Charlie Brown win a baseball match. Tendulkar has to tell his story with a single picture and that too without a bubble. “Words make the frame weak. To tell a story without words is difficult,” says the cartoonist. The last time he was in Kolkata was in 1976-77. “Kolkata has allowed me to enjoy great music, poetry, film and...

By Mathures Paul Silence is golden. With every footstep along the less-treaded green grass of South Park Street Cemetery one discovers on headstones names that inspired mortal souls to pen works of labour. In full bloom, branches still hang low over the tombs of the forgotten. Rose Aylmer, whom these wakeful eyes May weep, but never see, A night of memories and of sighs I consecrate to thee. Buried in the cemetery, Rose Aylmer’s death inspired poet Walter Savage Landor to write this verse. As a 17-year-old carefree girl, Rose strolled alongside Landor on the mountains of Wales. She arrived in the city in May 1798 to join her aunt, Lady Russell (after whose husband Russell Street was named). But as luck would have it, she died of cholera a year after her arrival. Heartsick, Landor penned his elegy to Rose Aylmer that was engraved on her tomb in 1910. Even in death she remains a mystery for some. A few locals attribute her death to choking on pineapple and a few to an overdose of the fru...

Casually dressed, soft-spoken and a patient listener, Pascal Bruckner is an acclaimed French novelist. Born with an instinct for the fresh, Bruckner belongs to the Generation of 1968, a revolutionary era in the history of France. In town to promote The Divine Child (Rupa France), a novel published sometime back, he is a man who doesn’t divorce politics, culture and sexuality. “There are numerous ways to exhibit the spirit of resistance. In France, everybody wants to resist, some against the government and others against culture. In Divine Child the question that I place before readers is what if a child were permitted to choose, before birth, whether or not to enter the world,” says Bruckner. In the book, Madeleine Barthelemey is pregnant with twins. Doctors advice her to undertake their education in utero. Soon Celine is born. But she has to forgo her eruditeness upon entering the world. Being a spectator of her fate, Louis refuses birth and embarks on a rebellion. In chapters like “t...

Renowned stand-up comic Russell Peters visits Kolkata, where his mother and brother were born. He speaks to Mathures Paul about his early career, the elections in America and future projects In North America a growing number of stand-up comics of Indian origin are becoming famous, a popular name among them is Russell Peters, who started performing in Toronto in 1989. These days he lives in Las Vegas and Los Angeles, where the environment is ‘just right’ for stand-up comics. After a long break Peters returned to India, which he doesn’t, like many celebrities of Indian origin, loosely calls his ‘hometown’. His show in Kolkata perhaps was just another show for him but his stay here surely was special to him. His father was born in Mumbai and mother in Kolkata. His elder brother, Clayton, was also born in Kolkata, making his stay a memorable one. In fact, when The Statesman caught up with him, he had a few minutes to spare before rushing off to meet his uncles. “I have never seen stand-up ...

Innovating on the spot. That sums up what Helga’s Fun Band is all about. Formed in November 2004, this is a band to watch out for. The group’s four happy-go-luck chaps — Siddharth Coutto (also drummer of Zero), Meghashyam (ex-guitarist of Acquired Funk Syndrome and Zero guitarist), Gino Banks (son of Louiz Banks) and Johan Pais (ex-Vicious Circle) — are always game to come up with a song on the spur of the moment. It’s a mini “supergroup” with seasoned musicians. The “jam” band was formed by Coutto to fulfil his desires to become a singer and mainly because he was bored playing the drums all the time. “We are just a bunch of guys out to have fun. If there’s a gig and you want four fun-loving musicians, think of us,” says Coutto before a performance at Someplace Else. HFC started off as Helga’s Funk Castle but soon dropped the “k” from “funk”. “We were considered a funk band even though we performed all kinds of numbers. To spice up things, we became known as Helga’s Fun Castle. It’s a ...

With Indian politicians at work, editorial cartoonists have a bright future, feels Shekhar Gurera. Mathures Paul sketches his experiences While depicting social ills, his pencil earned him several awards. Always making a social or political comment, the winner of Saitama’s Humour Photo Contest (2002), Best Cartoon Award (1990) and Best Cartoonist Award (1992), cartoonist Shekhar Gurera’s humble beginnings won many a heart. “In fact, I was a science student. After completing my BSc from Patiala in 1986, I was studying MCA. But instinct made me switch over to the arts. Thereafter I took admission in BFA in College of Arts (on the basis of the medals and certificates I won while participating in co-curricular activities at the national level). When I was in the first year of BFA, I began my career as a freelance cartoonist. By the time I graduated from BFA, I was an established name in the world of cartoons. By that time I had my page one column in four or five daily newspapers in various...

When she rolled her fingers over the piano keys, every note danced in praise of Neda Navaee’s beauty. The weekend crowd at the Calcutta School of Music enjoyed an evening of classical pieces played on the piano by the Toranto-based pianist Navaee. Born in 1973 in Isfahan, Iran, her parents soon moved to Washington, where she received her first piano lessons at the age of five. “With father being a musician, I was unknowingly inclined towards the subject since childhood. We had a normal piano, which I loved playing. When I turned 15, I took up playing the piano more seriously,” said Navaee, who had earlier performed in Mumbai and Pune. “Before I reached India, I was aware of the fact that people don’t get the opportunity to listen to Western classical music on piano as often as Westerners. After the initial bout of anxiety, I was relieved to hear crowds applaud.” The programme, sponsored by the Canadian High Commission and ITC Ltd, featured compositions by Beethoven, Prokofiev and Mende...

Cookery to Keith Floyd is the result of religion, geography and war. Mathures Paul marinades his career When satellite television arrived in India, two personalities inspired men to enter kitchens — Keith Floyd and Martin Yan. While some men lost a finger or two trying to outdo Yan, others went a bit tipsy watching Floyd sip wine and rustle up delicacies in natural surroundings. After all these years, Floyd, with his bow tie and smooth talk, remains a favourite among television viewers. Floyd’s definition of cooking is best described in A Feast of Floyd: “Cooking is an art and patience a virtue... Careful shopping, fresh ingredients and an unhurried approach are nearly all you need. There is one more thing — love. Love for food and love for those you invite to your table. With a combination of these things you can be an artist — not perhaps in the representational style of a Dutch master, but rather more like Gauguin, the naïve, or Van Gogh, the impressionist. Plates or pictures of sun...

Born on a farm and afflicted with asthma, Jim Davis took to cat doodles to while away the time ~ and the rest is history, writes Mathures Paul HE eats too much because he’s depressed. And he’s depressed because he eats too much. It took Garfield years to perfect the vicious circle! Born on 19 June 1978, Jim Davis’ humorous strip is centered round the life of a fat, lazy, cynical orange cat who loves lasagne, coffee, the television remote control, the suffering of his owner Jon Arbuckle and the other house pet, Odie. And nothing has changed in the past 28-odd years. “I always say Garfield is a human in a cat suit. Garfield deals with two subjects that are universal — eating and sleeping. We all eat and we all sleep (with any luck). He’s also an anti-hero. He does everything we humans would like to do if we could get away with it,” says Jim Davis in an exclusive interview to The Statesman. Davis’ upbringing charted out his future. His parents, James and Betty Davis, had a farm which, lik...

Flamenco has evolved over centuries of political and ethnic influences, writes Mathures Paul Grace personified, Laura Gonzalez swirled across the Calcutta School of Music auditorium floor to the amazement of those participating in a flamenco workshop. The very word flamenco conjures up images of intense passion and makes you say “Ole!”. Guitarist Fran Molina, Luis Garcia, percussionist Daniel Parra and dancer Laura Gonzalez gave pointers to the receptive audience gathered at Calcutta School of Music. But they were not averse to learning more about Indian dance forms and the degree to which the two can blend. “Whenever we get the opportunity, we listen to Indian music. It has rhythm. I know an American drummer who learnt the tabla when he visited India. But we have never spared a thought to the proposition of mixing Indian rhythms with flamenco,” says Daniel. Before arriving in Kolkata, the four mesmerised crowds in Delhi, where a sitar was also incorporated into the performance. Like o...

Sukhwinder Singh always finds Kolkata to be a tough venue for concerts as listeners here appreciate good lyrics and melody over crass ‘hit’ numbers. Over to Mathures Paul Performing in Kolkata has always been a challenge for most singers as music lovers here look beyond the glitz and glamour, at elements that distinguish mediocre from the talented, melody from a clutter of notations, feels Sukhwinder Singh, who arrives in Kolkata on 2 November to perform at Rabindra Sarovar Stadium, after successful concerts in Bangalore, Ambala, Ajmer, Rourkela and Thane. An extremely selective singer, quite like most composers/musicians he works with, Singh is currently in the news for Fashion Ka Jalwa, the hit track from Madhur Bhandarkar’s Fashion. Speaking to The Statesman, he shares thoughts beyond films. His Kolkata performance would feature mostly his hit numbers, and the list is quite long ~ from films such as Dil Se to Tashan to Fashion, played with a twist in terms of orchestration. He share...

Pratima Naithani could easily have been a jazz pianist but her destiny was to be an artist, one who is inspired by Indian history, music and films, writes Mathures Paul Children dream of becoming artists, musicians, scientist or engineers. Pratima Naithani’s options were limited due to a problem ~ which went undiagnosed until she was 13 ~ with her eyesight. Nevertheless, she was equally adept in expressing herself through music. A passion for the piano led her to play by ear without learning to read music, a skill she developed quickly to become a classical and jazz pianist. A twist of fate made her, still a student at boarding school, discover the world of art. Shaping the young mind was the rich cultural heritage of her parents. Her mother is from El Salvador and her father from India, Naithani grew up in the suburban town of Princeton, New Jersey. Since her mother’s country was at war for most of her childhood, preventing frequent visits, she developed a deeper relationship with her...

Mathures Paul reports on a project that will map world migratory patterns dating back some 150,000 years and fill in the huge gaps in our knowledge of humankind’s migratory history WHERE do we come from? Where are we headed? The objective of the Genographic Project, led by National Geographic explorer-in-residence Dr Spencer Wells, who is working with a team of renowned international scientists and IBM researchers, is to analyse historical patterns in DNA from participants around the world to better understand our human genetic roots. Dr Ajay K Royyuru, project leader, Computational Biology Centre, IBM Research (Watson Research Centre), shares some insights into IBM’s Genographic Project and discusses how IBM’s India Research Laboratory is contributing to the project. Excerpts: Major findings so far… A common origin of the entire human population was established on the basis of genetic evidence well before the Genographic Project. We are all Africans. The human species appeared in the ...