The countdown to happinesSi

The Voice
SSIEJ
The countdown to happinesSi
IS AGE A FACTOR?
E LLE risingstars
AHEAD OF
THE C YE
They are VISIONARIES, makers,
connoisseurs and INNOVATORS.
And their talents are made far greater
by their EXCEPTIONAL abilities.
These women own the future
PhotographerJOY DATTA
Make-up & Ha ir SUNITA BRACE
Deputy Art Director RESHMA RAJIWDEKAR
Senior Stylist DIWAK D'SOUZA
SOHAALI
KHAN
actress
Watch the scene in Rang De Basanti
(200 6) where Sonia breaks d own
up on hearing of her fianc e's death on
television and you will see tha t Soha
Ali Kha n's genes are perfectly in
place. She can act. She doesn 't do it
very often but th en she ad mits she
plan s nothing, least of all her caree r.
Yet of the coun tless young actors who
might have been righ t for th e part,
she was picked to be playJ amila Sinai
in Deep a Meh ta's mu ch talked abo ut
reel rendition of M idnight 's Children.
As the pr otagonist's youn ger sister
and most famo us songstr ess in all of
West Pakistan , Soha has 25 minutes of
scree n time in which to make her
mark . Th e singing was almos t her
undoing, she'll admit. "While we used
a playback singe r for the main bits, all
86
EL LE JAN UA RY 2013
th e hummin g and in termi tte n t
singing had to be done by me. So
th ere is this br eakfast scene where
I ente r singing a dit ty and my dad
(played by Ronit Roy) tells me how
beauti fully I sing. But in reality I know
it was a disaster."
Ask her if she hopes th at
M idnight 's Children will open up
in ternational avenues for her and she
gently rem inds you that she has done
a British film with her mother, veteran
act ress Sha rm ila Tagore, titled Life
Goes On (2010). "I th ink in English.
I thi nk that I can morph in to various
looks. I am not limited . And every
actor d reams of a wider audience . So,
why not? But I am not avidly scou ting
because I don't rea lly plan anything .
Heck, I don 't kn ow what I am doin g
next week," she says.
And going by her roster, it 's
eviden t she will expe rime n t. She has
to her credit a variety of films includ­
ing two Ben gali ones not to mention
her forays in to television , th e latest
being What Not To Wear Ind ia. Her
forthcoming releases include the
( ~ am not LIMITED.
Every actor dreams qf
a wider audience-'-'
sequel to Tigman shu Dhuli a's Saheb,
Biwi Aur Gangster (2011) and an
offbeat film called Chaarfu tiya
Chhokare. In th e latter, sh e pl ays
a Manhattan-based girl who comes to
a village in India to set up a school
only to find ou t th at the kids th ere are
all traine d assassins. "Whe n peopl e
ask me who the her o of the film is,
I say th ere isn o hero. Th ere'sjust me
and these kids."
Clothes Courtesy
Emporia Armani,
Mumbai. In quiries ,
(0 2 2) 40043377 .
Tar un Tahiliani, New
Delhi. Inquiries , (0 2 2)
22870895. Jewellery
Courtesy Ish ar ya ,
Mu mbai. Inquiries .
(022) 26489 161
She
Thi s is
dabbl ed in
th e Ford foun
wo
Thou gh , I have stuck ar
lon gest. I like actin g. It h
possibilities". Speaking of rei n
tion , she says, "Pr oducti on is
so me thing I have th ou gh t abo u t.
I like the idea of creating con ten t.
I have things to say and it would .be
nice to tell stories the way I would like
them to be see n and heard ."
She reveals she is restless and
bored easily. And it's the thri ll of
adven ture that gets her going. "I like
to believe that I can do an vth ing
I want. My mother is of the op inion
that one sho uld take up a vocation or
a skill and perfect it. But I like to be
J ack of all trad es. Ultimately the
goal is to be hap py. And to not take
~
yourself too serio usly."
SUKANYA VENKATRAGHAVAN IS A
JOURNALIST, SCREEN WRITER AND NOVELIST
•
•
ELLE nstngstars
school p rovides on par fac ilities
to 200 stude nts u nt il Grade 5
(plans are in th e offing for- classes
up to Grad e 12) , 15 teac hers and
a consta nt stream of volunteers fro m
across th e world .
Reachin g the school in Breswana,
up in the mo untains of Doda, her
father's ancestral village , from the
nearest city takes 12 to 14 hours.
A few hours on h o rse back takes
you in to the mountains and after
a co uple of hours of walking uphill
mos tly, you reach Sabb ah's village.
It's just a small glim pse into th e
corn er of th e world that occupies
h er m ind space. Ch angi ng tracks
has been surprisingly easy. Ask her
and she says, "It's literally like going
to a so ul-spa eve ry da y. Cleansed
inside-out. I have learn t to appreciate
everyth ing much more, seeing what
I have always ha d an d what the y never
did . I have learnt to complain less
beca use they never do."
SHARON FERNANDES
ARPITA
AGARWAL &
SAJEDA BATRA
entrepreneurs
It's easy to mistake what Arpita
Agarwa l, 34, and Sajeda Batra , 36, do
as just the whimsy of well-he eled
homemakers.
As found ers
of
Beetroot, Mumbai's largest book and
to y lib rary, th eir days are sp ent
surrounded by expensive playthings
and novelties
they 've curated
from around th e world . It 's only
as the co nversation unfo lds, that
you glim pse th e tenacity, th e
sheer em otio nal investment and
really, the profoun d love, that drives
thi s venture.
102
Situated in the basement of
a white, officious-loo king building in
south Mu mb ai, Beetroot feels like
a discovery. Bright walls are lined fro m
ceiling to floor with colou rful book
spines. Beady-eyed , velveteen whales,
bears and wood land cre atures peek
out from in between them and an
entire expanse of wall is dedi cated to
carefu lly wrapped play sets . Mu te
yellow lights lend the libra ry a fuzzy,
intimate quality; in one corne r,
bath ed in shafts of natural light, a low
tab le an d tiny chairs look as if they 're
awaiting a pretend tea party.
"'Beetroot' con notes an im pres­
sion that stays with you - like th e
crims on the vegetable leaves on your
fingers," says Arpita, whose four-year­
old son first made the ob servation
when they were looki ng to name their
( (M otherhood has
been our greatest
QUALIFICATION) -'
idea III 2009 . "Your chi ldhood
influe nces never leave you," Sajeda
ad ds . "I read Edith Nesbit's The
Railway Children when I was so little
an d the magic has stayed with me
always. We want to make sure ch ild re n
have that ch ance to draw from
the best."
How did the y go about handpick­
ing th e library's staggering 4,000­
book, 2,000 -toy inventory?
In
consu ltatio n with solemn , bespecta­
cle d ch ild academicians, minutely
deconstructing the educational heft
of each item , sur ely? There is sticky
grinning. "Noth ing of the sort. It's
all been instin ctive," says Arpita .
"Motherhood ha s been our greatest
qualification for this job." Th ey've
don e the leg work , though . Combing
the country's book stores, atten ding
in ternational toy fairs , studying
every poss ib le permutation and
combination of cognitive skill a toy
could un lock, and then drawing up
compreh ens ive instru ction cards for
th e optimum use of each .
Examine the scope of this little
ent erprise and you' ll see that only
a parent could portend other
paren ts' needs and close th at gap .
"Chi ldr en are insatiable th ese days.
Feeding their relentless curiosity can
become a task. We have parents in
he re, week after week, saying 'Do you
have more?" says Sajeda. Besides, the
accessib le h iring price po ints are
a leveller - "every child can get to
experience th ese world-standard
products regardless of their economic
bac kground." And on weekdays, from
10:30 am to 11:30 pm, Beetroot, along
with its fou n ders, belon gs to the
neighbourhood's street kids.
Beetroot is a pr ecocio us ch ild as
any and keeps th e women on the ir
toes . Since they went digital last year,
their member count has dou bled to
160. T his year, they plan to take their
delivery services pan Mumbai an d
within the next five years , to all major
metros. Their inven tory, meanw hile,
keeps ge tting revamped every quarter
and they will soon dabble in games
for th e PlayStat ion an d th e Wii.
"We've got to keep checking with our
kids too ," laugh s Sajeda. "Wh ile we're
busy collecting th e classics, my
twin boys go, 'Mom, wh at abo ut
Captain Underpants? !'" •
CHERYL-ANN COUTO
PHOTOGRAPHER JOY DATTA
MAKE·UP & HAIR SUNITA BRACE
DEPUTY AR T DIRECTOR RESHMA RA JIWDEKAR;
SENIOR STYLIST DIV YAK D'SOUZA
LOCATION COUR TE SY WATERSTONES HOTEL,
SAHAR, OF F INTERNATI ONAL AIRPO RT
APPROACH ROAD, ANDHE RI (E) , MUMBAI 59 .
INQUIRIES, (022) 40906 6 3 3