“You only evolve once you make mistakes. But if because of fear of mistakes you keep on recycling, one day there will be nothing left to recycle.” Music composer Shantanu Moitra may have said this in regard to music, but it holds true about for life as well and points to taking that all important first step.
Godrej held their annual curated day-long event L’affaire recently in the city and the theme was ‘New Beginnings’. It brought together stalwarts from various avenues of life, from Bollywood to fashion.
Be it actor Bhumi Pednekar who tried her hand at baking, to Shantanu da who spoke about his journeys in the Himalayas, to couturiers Monisha Jaising and Shweta Bachchan Nanda’s luxury prêt fashion label’s first fashion show, it was all about ‘Aarambh’.
Bhumi se Aarambh
The talented Bhumi donned a new hat for the event — that of a chef. She joined hands with chef Varun Inamdar to bake and was unfearful of making mistakes in the public eye. She didn’t though and ended up baking a delicious brownie.
She took time to talk to FPJ about the start of her career and food memories. Speaking about her association with food at the beginning of her acting career, she recalled that she had turned into a glutton who was eating every two hours.
Elaborating on the experience of prepping for “Dum Laga Ke Haisha”, she noted, “It was a lot of food. I was eating every two hours; everything I’m not eating today I was eating then.” Reiterating the bond with food, the dedicated actor who changes her diet to that of the character she is playing to effectively transform herself, said, “Food is a very integral part of my life. Food has a lot to do with how you feel about yourself and your home.”
With so much talk of food, how can discussions about exercise not enter the conversation? Bhumi, who enjoys a cheat meal every two weeks, revealed that her workout regimen was a mix of various things. She stated, “It depends on the role.
I try and physically transform myself for different characters. But even otherwise, I work out for 20-40 minutes daily for myself. That’s my ‘me time’.”
But ‘new beginnings’ have to respect the past and preserve the present. Her activism, simply put is, “We’ve pushed our planet beyond repair. It’s our responsibility to safeguard it for the future generation. I’ve a voice that people listen to so I’m spreading the word, to make small changes daily and make an impact.”
In the beginning, there’s music
While the conversation with Bhumi was about food, our conversation with Shantanu da established that music is the food of the soul. Talking about his 100-day excursion in the Himalayas and how it inspired his compositions, the musician said, “The whole game is silence. As a species, if we understand silence we would be a healthier planet.
If we understand silence, we would be making music, not noise. Silence can only happen if you are confident. In the Himalayas, they have no problem with silence. They have what they have and they are confident about it, however little it be. Here we’re not confident thanks to too many options. But without silence music can’t happen.”
While the discussion traversed through various valleys and plateaus of how music connected to our emotions and a slightly heated conversation around remixes, it paused for a while on the topic of adaptation vs inspiration in music. The music composer of ‘3 Idiots’ said, “In the evolution of music, folk music came first.
Then came classical music followed by pop music. Classical music, be it Beethoven, Bach, Mozart are all adapted from folk music — that’s adaptation. Unlike writers/ painters, musicians don’t have anything physical; it is a tune, seven notes.
Now, if you hear a Hungarian folk song and love that, you may adapt it. But I don’t know what inspiration means! Either it’s adapted or lifted - no middle path here.”
Travel to Love
Travelling was still the theme when actor couple Teejay Sidhu and Karanvir Bohra met us, right at the start of a new travel web series titled ‘Baby Yatra’. Talking about it, the two explained the tagline ‘Where does God live?’ Teejay credited their twin children who had once asked them ‘Where does God live?” When Karanvir responded with “In your heart,” they had said, “No really, where does he live?”
Karanvir said that they planned to visit as many places of worship as possible to make the children understand that one can believe in one God but definitely have to respect all.
Teejay chipped in with, “We don’t want to be pushy about religion at this point with them. It should be an adventure but they’re also experiencing history. Hopefully they’ll develop a love for history.”
The couple, whose marriage was “arranged by God”, stated that love is their religion and they have stated so on their children’s visa applications as well. To all people who want to travel, all they say is ‘go sustainable’. Carry your own coffee cups and bottles to ensure that we keep the places clean. Reduce, reuse, recycle — the best kind of new beginning for our planet.
