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INTERVIEWS

The Times of India •

My dad made us crack codes to find our Christmas presents: Dan Brown

At 61, Dan Brown is chasing his most ambitious puzzle yet — the human mind. On a video call from what he says is his library in New Hampshire though it looks uncannily like his protagonist Robert Langdon’s cryptic chambers, the author spoke about his first book in eight years. ‘The Secret of Secrets’ is built on the little-known field of noetic science or the mystery of human consciousness. In a chat, he spoke about bridging faith and science, his obsession with codes, and why the mind may be the next big frontier of hidden knowledge.
The Times of India •

Why music icons come knocking on this Beyonce collaborator’s door

The last time Robert Randolph set foot in Mumbai, a monkey stole his lunch. “At the Elephanta Islands,” he laughs. “Man, I had a great time. The food, the people… I bought a suitcase full of linen shirts and pants.” That was over a decade ago, when he first played at the Mahindra Blues Festival—guesting with Buddy Guy in 2012, then closing the festival in 2013. Returning for his third stint at the blues fest, “It’s gonna be a high-energy bluesy, rock and roll show,” he promises. “People should come ready to dance!”
The Times of India •

Rs 20,000 loan to luxe legend: Sabyasachi marks 25-year milestone

At 50 and on the cusp of celebrating 25 years in the fashion industry with a grand show in Mumbai on Jan 25, couturier Sabyasachi Mukherjee is refreshingly unromantic about his achievements. “A lot of people think I’m a big deal but for me, it’s like running any other business. I’m not an engineer nor a doctor. I don’t save lives or build bridges. I make clothes and get an undue amount of attention for that.”
The Times of India •

Even after a year on Ozempic and 20 kg lighter, I am still really conflicted about it

The protagonist of British-Swiss author Johann Hari’s recently released book ‘Magic Pill’ is Ozempic — the diabetes medication-turned-weight-loss marvel that helped him go from 92 kilos to 73 in a year. Yet, as 44-year-old Hari globe-trotted from Tokyo to Iceland, conversing with its makers, experts, and fellow users, he was left pondering if this hunger-slasher was indeed the answer to his lifelong struggles with food, weight, and body image. Hari talks about the promises and perils of Ozempic
The Times of India •

Met Museum Head Talks Art of Repatriation and Relevance

It’s not easy running one of the world’s largest museums with more than 1.5 million works spanning 5,000 years. And certainly not easy amidst heightened scrutiny over looted objects and mounting pressure for repatriation. Max Hollein—who took charge of the Metropolitan Museum of Art (Met), New York as director in 2018 and CEO last July—knows this all too well. Fresh from signing an MoU with India’s Ministry of Culture and ahead of delivering a lecture at the CSMVS, Hollein remained composed as he sat down for a chat about policing its art and artefacts with a problematic past, recent restitutions and keeping the museum relevant in an age of sensory overload.
The Times of India •

Gen Zer from genre town bagged Grammy with an old soul

It's an impersonal setting - rooftop of a five-star hotel in the heart of Mumbai's business district - but Christone ' Kingfish ' Ingram doesn't seem to mind when you try and tease the 'personal' out of him.The 24-year-old is being hailed as 'the heir to the Delta blues crown'. But blues, they say, is a dialogue, songs of the soul in pain. Ingram was only 20 when he released his first album in 2019. How did he channel those emotional depths and social insights at such a young age, we press on.
The Times of India •

Listened a lot to Zakir Hussain: Imagine Dragons bassist

Expect the unexpected from Imagine Dragons, the American pop-rock sensation that emerged on the global stage with its 2012 smash hit ‘Radioactive’. Looking past the cliches of dabbawala, rickshaw or the seminal vada-pav, their bassist Ben McKee says he’d like a serving of Indian vegetables when the four-piece band comes stomping Mumbai's Mahalaxmi Racecourse as headliners for Lollapalooza on January 28. Ahead of their maiden trip to India, TOI chatted with McKee about hitting the road again, a giant album in the time of singles, teaming up with President Volodymyr Zelensky and the mystery behind their name.
The Times of India •

At a time when LGBTQ books face bans, I hope this offers kids a voice, says author Moulik Pancholy

Moulik Pancholy says he was heartbroken when a group of school parents protested against his debut novel for its portrayal of a gay Indian American boy. The book went on to be banned from US school districts. But Pancholy of ‘30 Rock’ fame found courage in that backlash and whipped up another poignant tale, about a 13-year-old’s struggles for queer rights.
The Times of India •

How Bachchan’s empathy made KBC a big hit

It has been 22 years since a quiz show beamed into people’s living rooms and managed to touch and turn around lives ever since. If Kaun Banega Crorepati ( KBC ) was a game-changer for Indian television and the average viewer, it also changed the fortunes for its host, Amitabh Bachchan . Former producer-director of KBC Siddhartha Basu recounts Bachchan’s charisma, camaraderie and connect with the common man through 14 seasons of the show...
The Times of India •

When Kal Penn made MILF jokes in the White House, and other funny stories

When Kal Penn, born Kalpen Modi, decided to split his first name and add an extra ‘n’, it wasn’t an actor’s obsession with numerology but a brown person in America taking a subtle jab at Hollywood’s fixation with hokey accents and turbans. “I joke that the ‘n’ stands for ‘not going to play a stereotypical cab driver.” Frank and refreshingly free of movie star airs, the 44-year-old Indian American actor spoke to Mohua Das about some honest and wildly funny stories that have gone into the making of his memoir You Can’t Be Serious
The Times of India •

I am always going to speak up, even if I feel terrified inside: Disha Ravi

Perched outside her house in north Bengaluru, climate activist Disha Ravi is suddenly aware of just how many birds her neighbourhood has. “Their chirping gives me great pleasure. I enjoy watching mundane activities, there’s comfort and joy in that,” she says. Her world wasn’t as tranquil just four months ago when she was whisked away by a posse of police officers, slapped with charges of sedition and criminal conspiracy for editing and sharing a social media toolkit in support of the farmers’ movement.
The Times Of India •

Kerala is one of the most exciting culinary destinations, says chef Gordon Ramsay

Just weeks before the world was turned upside down by the coronavirus pandemic, British chef and restaurateur Gordon Ramsay was in Coorg climbing trees of peppercorn and catching karimeen in Kannur’s backwaters. A chat with one of food television’s most recognised faces offered a glimpse of what keeps bringing him back to India, brain food, women’s place at the table and his friendly charm, a far cry from his barbed tongue. Excerpts...
The Times Of India •

Meet the Indian bat-man part of Canadian team of scientists that isolated Covid-19 virus

“I’d always told my friends, ‘When I grow up, I want to be a guy who gets called in if there’s an outbreak’.”Arinjay Banerjee, a Kolkata-born and Mumbai-bred virologist at McMaster University in Hamilton, Canada, had prophesied some years ago before he actually got called in last month to join the team of Canadian scientists that has managed to successfully isolate a strain of the coronavirus and grown samples in a lab to help study the pathogen responsible for the global outbreak of Covid-19.
The Times Of India •

Blues do live here, because Buddy the legend says so

Buddy Guy, pioneer and last living link to the storied history of the original Chicago blues, doesn’t seem to mind when you try and tease the personal out of him. As he returns at 83 to perform at the tenth edition of the Mahindra Blues Fest, the painfully shy legend — who was born George Guy to a sharecropper’s family in a small town near New Orleans and who fashioned his first guitar out of wood and his mother’s hairpins — lets TOI in on everything from his secret debutante tears to his prefered form of liquid courage.
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