A year since theatre veteran and communications professional Dolly Thakore’s brilliant 'Regrets, None' gave readers a no-holds-barred humanised (with all his frailties) look at the late maverick advertising and theatre legend Alyque Padamsee, another book ‘Let Me Hijack Your Mind’, which Padamsee co-authored with Vandana Saxena Poria is out.
“This one-of-its-kind book invites us to re-examine and think afresh about some of our most deeply held beliefs, from love, marriage, terrorism, leadership, money, gender, faith to education,” said his daughter Raell Padamsee who emceed the evening held at a book store in South Mumbai. She called 'Let Me Hijack Your Mind' Alyque's parting gift to Indians and said, “It exhorts them to discard the old and embrace new approaches to life, which will propel them to a more exciting and contented life and a better society and country. In a way, he asks readers to think of life beyond greed, power, and money.”
Speaking on the sidelines of the launch, crooner and theatre personality Sharon Prabhakar who was also Padamsee’s partner said: “This is a book designed to throw everyone off-balance in a good way because it is crammed with fresh ideas on how to live, how to dream and how to reset our mindset and attitudes completely.”
She pointed out how Padamsee was equally engaged with issues related to the underprivileged and marginalised as he was with his creative pursuits in theatre and advertising. “He was very engaged with how the country is being run and the way we can make the system more accountable,” she said and added, “This book looks at all those issues in a comprehensive manner”
The fun, racy and often shocking book deals with several provocative questions like: why should marriage be 'till death do us part', why terrorists break the law of their very own holy books, why MNCs are obsessed with GNP (Gross National Product) instead of GNH (Gross National Happiness), why men fear women and why women hate themselves also busts some of the most fondly-held and well-known taboos and includes life hacks drawing on Padamsee’s experiences in advertising and theatre, as well as new 'commandments' for the current generation.
The book’s recent Mumbai release was a soiree with a difference which saw Jim Sarbh, Dalip Tahil, Shiamak Davar, Raell Padamsee and Vandana Saxena Poria, on things they have learnt from Padamsee over the years, while they also discussed intriguing topics from the book such as ‘Should Marriage change to a renewable 5-year license?’, ‘Should Education become edutainment to ensure lifelong learning?’, and ‘Can Theatre teach you what’s necessary to be successful in Business?’
While Davar spoke of a manifestation of divinity in all creative pursuits, Tahil spoke of the rigour and discipline that theatre imbues people with. Responding to a question on the hypocrisy Jim Sarbh said, “It is shocking how the average age of Indians is 25 and yet the average age of the 1000 odd people running the country is 54! If we fix this we can fix so much that is wrong with this country,” leading to much applause from the audience.
The sizzling mother-daughter duo Sharon Prabhakar and Shazahn Padamsee enthralled a houseful audience with their rendition of ‘Starry Starry Night'. Ace singer Sid Meghani belted out some of The Beatles’ most popular numbers like ‘Hey Jude’, ‘Yesterday’, ‘Let it Be’ et al. Chirag Agarwal won hearts with his live music.
