The Hindu, 12 November 2011

http://www.thehindu.com/arts/magazine/article2621379.ece

Yet, nothing can replace meeting authors and publishers face to face to get into the groove of the latest in publishing trends, says Mita Kapur from the Frankfurt Book Fair.

An agent tweeted while at the Frankfurt Book Fair — “Received 3 meeting requests today. Are you all insane? No, we can’t meet because I already have 80 meetings!” There is something about why and how we do business during the book fair. We may be on instant email connections, crackle conversations on Skype, transfer heavy manuscript files with a click but publishers, agents, scouts and authors do need to travel to FBF and meet face to face over wine or coffee and avidly discuss the books that matter to us. We need to walk through the halls, browse, read the back of books and mentally add them to our lists of must pick-ups. It’s close to how we shop at book stores and yet it’s a multi-layered narrative that unfolds in the days to come. It’s hard-core business — of rights being bought and sold in various languages. Of an author’s creativity being noticed and appreciated. There are also focused events where the latest and burning issues that are raking up publishing winds are discussed.

The debating and pondering starts at  the International Rights Directors Meeting with the guest country’s publishers and agents presenting specific reflections of the present trends and market demands within the publishing circuit. Offsetting this is the overview of the larger trends and burning issues like the book being reinvented with e-books and now, enhanced e-books. Enchanced e-books use the functionality of video, audio, maps, photos, interviews embedded in them and not just flat two dimensional illustrations. Parallel to this is the huge influx of apps being sold. Apps are being used for marketing authors using their Twitter streams, Facebook, websites which fans can download. There are too many variables in the market place for e-books and with the massive sales and downloading of apps, they can easily be considered as add-on or complementary elements to a book. The questions of investment costs for enhanced e-books and apps were creating the buzz since even the risk-takers in this field are still figuring out the best math for it. In the Western world, the price of an e-book matches the price of the mass market book. It does ensure that it brings more and more readers to the market. For instance, The Bro Code, based on the popular sit com “How I Met Your Mother” has sold over 600,000 copies — the fourth book in the series is being done now and licensed apps used for this book have been sold in nine countries.  Digital distribution and marketing is the new buzzword of the game. However, we are yet to catch up with such trends in the Indian publishing industry in terms of scale of operations, although e-books are making their presence felt on the rights’ negotiating table.

Hectic pace

This set the rhythm and pace for the next four days of back-to-back meetings and it felt like hop-scotch being played between the halls. If you thought you were the only one standing at a café waiting for your meeting and landed up asking a couple of people, “Are you David?”, you aren’t. There are lots of us like this and then you can all laugh together as there are multiple cases of mistaken identity. Heads bent over catalogues, notes being scribbled quickly, intent dialogues, intermittent smiles, lots of coffee and wine and you end up congregating at one of the many parties being held at popular hotels every evening. While exiting from Hall 8 on the third day, I overheard two publishers — “You should have dropped in at our stand — our white wine was better than what you were serving.” Pat came the reply, “Well, our snacks were better than yours!”

Discussing trends

There are the hot spots where book discussions, meet the author, meet the experts and events such as Story Drive  (this year) take place under Frankfurt Sparks. How will stories be told in the future? Where content meets technology meets user, where mobile content solutions, story selling, the perfect pitch are as much a part of ebbing and flowing sound waves as much as are hot sales of books by authors in demand are. Publisher’s Perspective and Bookseller Daily are what you fish out first thing in the morning at the fair to read about the top deals, multi not just in monetary terms but also across languages, made by leading agents and publishing houses — it generates further energy levels.  From India this year, the Indian Literature Abroad (ILA) initiative was very well received at Frankfurt. “The book fair always provides a unique opportunity to reach out across languages and continents. ILA’s mandate is to translate and promote literature from the 24 national languages into the six UNESCO languages (and others) and we got to successfully register our presence with French, Spanish, Arabic, Chinese and Russian publishers, besides interacting with English and German publishers. India has a plural and linguistically diverse literary heritage and it is vital to project this internationally as the true and accurate face of Indian writing. Quality literary translations are naturally the key to this”, said Namita Gokhale who heads the project.

A walk through the halls (in case you manage to steal a half an hour every day), to see how publishers from all over the world publish their books is time well spent. That is why the book fair matters — talking to people, finding out what they are looking for, what is really ticking, what makes them smile or cry — you can’t do that on email!

http://www.verveonline.com/97/life/scapes_raseel.

The Indophile collection by Raseel Gujral and Naveen Ansal brims over with eclectic energy, a burst of joyous, vibrant colours nuanced with textures that come forth with a message – that this furniture line and accessories need to be experienced, touched and made use of. They include patterns and graphics that subliminally spell out a kaleidoscopic garden of paradise, with birds and blooms embracing and jostling with colour and lyrical imagery.

Choosing to call it Indophile, Raseel explains, “It’s deeply India-inspired and basically conveys a sense of being in love with the country. There is a variety of inlay. The form of the table comes from a ring – the big thumb ring. The screens are all taken from old doors and windows. The embroidery is all Mughal bootas. The birds – the parrots and bulbuls – are from our miniatures so even if it’s not traditional Indian in a purist manner, it does have its roots in India.”

As my eyes run over the riot of raspberry pink, lime green, sunshine yellow, ultra-marine cushions sitting plump on sofas accented by straight-lined tables with the traditional jaali work attached to their legs, there is a sense that design here has been given a playful spin. Naveen, speaking like a proud partner says, “Fortunately for us, Raseel has a free flow of design coming out of her all the time. I have complete faith in her ability to do what she does on her own. I am part of the process just as a sounding board. Both of us love colour; we love doing something which is different but I think this is all hers – she keeps changing. I remember this from the time we lived together in Garden Estate – those days there was really no colour in Indian interiors and she was doing so much of it that people used to say, ‘Isn’t it too wild?’”

Raseel picks up the thread, “My take on Indian design and design per se is multiple. They can’t always be said at the same time, in the same breath or in the same story, so I need to tell different stories. This is the luscious diva story. I am working on a collection inspired by Naveen – I’ve used him as my model and created a very retro, of the ’70s, an Octopussy kind of line – that’s the next story. I am working on an India Palace collection – which is another story.”

Everything except for the pillars (whose flowers are of Japanese origin and are linked with the butterflies) harks back to our traditional past. Raseel says, “I have no professional training. I have been working in design since I was 21 years old.” Naveen adds in the same vein, “She was working with her father and Mohit (Gujral) when I met her. Likewise, I have no training in design or even business; I am actually a land owner and have picked up the threads on the job.”

Interestingly, Raseel, who has been a painter, got married when she was 18. “I was very keen on architecture and my father said it’s better to work straight at the studio and learn,” she states. “I started from scratch and was made to learn the basics right from drafting, air conditioning and electricals. I didn’t go to any professional institute, but my institute was a lot more gruelling. I worked there till 1994 when Naveen and I met and we set up our company.”

Casa Paradox was a platform for their design ambitions. But there has been an evolution, for as Raseel says, “Everything changes, yet remains the same. When we started Casa Paradox, I was already practising as an interior designer. I was producing furniture for my projects with other furniture manufacturers. When the two of us met, I told Naveen that we can set up a business in the same field as this was what I knew well.” Naveen adds, “I wanted to come to Delhi. We went around to all the kaarigars together when she thought that making furniture through other people was tedious.”

Raseel has been hands on with inlay for the last 15 years, giving the jaali work a modern take. She points out, “I have workers from Agra with me and I cannot really pinpoint where I’ve been experimental and where I’ve not. It’s not just working with craftsmen but working with a craft.”

The new collection which is ‘Naveen inspired’ will have, Raseel says, “a lot of forest, hunter green, navy blue, acid green, Indian yellow in a spectrum of neutrals but with a lot of punch and a far more fashion relevant accessorisation with different kinds of leather, metals. I need to work on this with Naveen since it has to be male-sensitive.” Naveen goes back into the past, “Any collection we’d do together, she’d take all her files when we were travelling so that we could dwell on what needs to be done.”

On their “fun at work” Raseel says, “We love what we do though it’s a big challenge and can get stressful to produce the quality we want. I don’t compare myself with the Italians – I think we are better than them but to get work done measuring up to our standards and get it done on time is a challenge.”

Naveen adds, “What we do is contemporary furniture but it is in a language that has continuity. It’s not something that’s been taken from here and placed there. It’s an expression of our experiences, a genuine look and what Raseel does the best is that our contemporary forms have a little bit of old-fashioned charm peeping in by way of more shine or more inlay work; or the forms are tweaked a bit to give it that special look – a leg may be shaved off a little more to give it a curve, to give it a more interesting silhouette. We develop our own polishes.”

In a philosophic vein, he continues, “I feel our strength is that we both don’t think we’ve reached anywhere, we are moving along. Internationally Europe, which is the furniture capital, is not moving anywhere – we should be presenting ourselves there with our strengths. We need to create our own identity. Indian design is very ready provided it can deliver the quality and stick to timelines. And, ultimately, internationally, we have to be true to our Indianness.”

Muse India, May-June 2011

http://www.museindia.com/featurecontent.asp?issid=37&id=2629

Book Review by Ambika Ananth

Mita Kapur
THE F-WORD
New Delhi : HarperCollins, a joint venture with The India Today Group.
Pp- 235, Price- Rs.599.

An intensely alive spirit in the book

With a tongue-in-cheek, naughty, enticing, exciting title like “The F-Word,” the book has jouissance, juice and joviality to make it a good read. This one is an outcome of a confluence of many facets of a wholesome woman – that of a mother, a writer, a culinary expert, a connoisseur of food. By blending various insights into a composite vision, by combining real life situations and real life characters of family and friends, Mita Kapur succeeds in creating an interesting read in her book. Those who are aware of a British food magazine and cooking show “The F Word”, also known as ‘Gordon Ramsay’s F Word’, may not be totally surprised by the book title, but may reach out with eagerness to dig hungrily into its contents.

Mita Kapur is a freelance journalist regularly featured in many newspapers and magazines. She covers social and developmental issues along with travel, food and lifestyle humor stories. She is the founder and CEO of Siyahi, a literary consultancy where she doubles up as a literary agent along with conceptualizing and directing literary events. The F-Word is her first book and was launched at the Frankfurt Book Fair –Oct 2010.

There are nine chapters aptly entitled– ‘Papad, peanuts or pepperoni’, ‘Barmy Beginnings’, ‘Sultans of Swing’, ‘Spice on the side’, ‘Steaming hot and subtly flavoured’, ‘The fragrance of Meat’, ‘Go Green’, ‘The taste of Home’, and ‘Desserts and Departures’. This according to Mita Kapur “ is a book for food lover, for the people who enjoy gastronomical pleasures in life and aren’t ashamed of being gluttons”

Perhaps food is an entity which can never be relegated to sidelines in the life of living beings. It has an enduring universal merit for its strong hold on both – the stomach and the mind. There are social, cultural and personal conventions to food – the way it is prepared, the way it is served, the way it is loved and so on. It seems our lives are not in the lap of the Gods, but in the lap of our cooks’ – this saying goes to prove the importance of cooks and culinary science.

Instead of being a long, meandering narrative, as one would expect of a book on food, this one turns out to be very compelling and interesting. The casual conversations turn out to be informative and engagingly refreshing, the stories behind some recipes like Lucknowi biryani, the authentic method to make it perfect in every way by ‘pakao’ing it for two days, or the account of an Indian sex worker in the red light area of Amsterdam et al add the proverbial ‘meat’ to the content.

‘Cooking is like love, it should be entered into with abandon or not at all” goes a saying and one finds such abandon, confidence and joy in the way Mita Kapur comes up with her ‘recipes-dissemination’ in her book. The slurpy, drooly, appetizing, tempting recipes are interspersed with the story, built around a series of almost common daily incidents of an Indian family, along with portrayal of some fine life-moments, funny anecdotes, historical facts and also social issues like child molestation etc. Her cooking has lots of love of her family and friends and memories of travel and parties too infused in it, which serve the purpose of the story well. There is an intensely alive spirit running through the book in the voice of the author – no confusion, no dichotomy, a straight from the heart desire to share her knowledge, in an aesthetic way, that makes this book truly lovable.

To eat is a necessity, to eat intelligently is an art – but to make food eatable in an intelligent, tasty and hygienic way is also very important. The recipes shared here fall in that category. The range and variety of the dishes is big, both in the conservative and ‘funky’ way, with a list of traditional and modern food ingredients. She has emphasized on Thai cuisine many times for its delectable recipes in the book apart from giving other cuisines too their chance to impress.

The book works on two planes – there is sharp wit, a bit of pathos, a fine handling of family interpersonal relations – an easy continuum between all these and without any obstruction, from the smooth flow pop up the recipes, except at one or two places where they appear to be appendages.

Though it is meant mostly for non-vegetarians, with many and so many recipes to tickle their senses, there are few sweet dishes bringing in a sort of balance, breaking a sort of tedium a vegetarian may find, though the section “Go green’ has some easy to make, simple vegetarian recipes.

Some exotic recipes like Walnut Chutney, Water Chestnut Salad, and The perennial Stir-fry make mouth water.

“I’m not going to follow cuisines, I like to keep the structure casual, what I have learnt over the years, which I’m emotionally attached to, I haven’t stuck to one cuisine,” says Mita Kapur.

The ‘dos and the don’ts’ are well explained – for example, she says, “avoid storing your greens next to fruits like apples and bananas. They emit ethylene gas as they ripen. This causes brown spots on the greens and shorten their life’.

Most of the culinary delights in the book can make any party or event delightful and successful.

But one observation I would like to make is, Indian families – however liberal and outgoing – will not allow children to use such shocking profanities in front of parents and other family members as depicted in the book. Some readers would find it nauseous. For a Food Book ‘nausea’ is a taboo feeling …!

The contemporary reader wants variety and sophistication in their books and this one fits the bill well. The presentation is fine and the quality of paper and print is very attractive.

Well done Mita Kapur !