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India discovered America and made it their own though jazz music explains Naresh Fernades, whose book Taj Mahal Foxtrot, chronicles how jazz entered Bombay and found a new home in this port city.  Taj Mahal Foxtrot was the first jazz song recorded in Bombay.

The early American musicians were traveling ministrels, who came to Bombay in the mid-19thc. By early 20thc there was a steady stream of jazz musicians, mostly African-American, who came to Bombay and played at the Taj Mahal hotel, which was the musical nerve center for the city. Teddy Weatherford was one such musician, who played extensively in Bombay, and helped mentor Indian musician, mostly from Goa, which was a Portuguese colony then.

Jazz heralded the birth of India and Pakistan as Naresh explain in the interview. Mohammad Ali Jinnah had his favorite jazz band especially flown in from Bombay to celebrate the birth of a new nation – Pakistan. And in Bombay’s Taj Mahal jazz was being played  as the Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru was reading his famous freedom at midnight speech in New Delhi.  Among the audience at Taj Mahal was Vijaylakshmi Pandit, Nehru’s sister.

And in the 1950s a string of jazz ambassadors traveled to India including Dave Brubeck, Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington. Although jazz made a slow disappearance from Bombay, you can still find its influence on Hindi (Bollywood films).

If you missed it, you may want to listen to Part-1 of the interview with Naresh.

Note: Apologies for the audio quality.

The publishing landscape in India has changed quite a bit in the last few years and Indian and South Asian writers are on the radar of international publishing houses. What does the Indian publishing industry have to learn from these changes? One of the major change in Indian publishing according to Ira Pande is the savvy marketing by Chetan Bhagat,  whose books have sold in millions and he is ranked right at the top of Flipkart’s bestseller list for 2011. (Watch video of Ira.)

Another change that has come about is the spotlight on South Asian writers from international publishers, who are on the constantly on the scout for new authors from this region. To  some extent the annual Jaipur Literary Festival has emerged as an important event where South Asian writers can meet with publishers and agents.  Ira describes how this literary gathering has became an annual pilgrimage of sorts for both writers and publishers, who are in search of their next new hit.

Ira is the chairperson of the jury for the 2012 DSC prize for South Asian literature at the 2012 Jaipur Literary Festival. She has worked in the publishing industry for many years, and was the managing editor of Dorling-Kindersley and chief editor of Roli Books India. Currently, she is the chief editor at India International Center.

In case, you missed you can listen to Part-1 of the interview with Ira.

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Shivani and Manohar Shyam Joshi are two well-known Hindi writers, whose work until a few years ago was confined to Hindi readers. However in the last few years Shivani and Joshi’s books were translated in English by  Shivani’s daughter Ira Pande, who is an author herself.

Shivani’s Diddi and Apradhini and Joshi’s T’Ta Professor were translated into English by Ira.

In Part-1 of our conversation Ira talks about how and why she translated these books into English and the change in Indian publishing landscape and the impact of Chetan Bhagat.

Apradhini is an unusual collection of stories from 3 different perspective on the same subject – women in prison for committing crimes of passion. Ira shares how her mother got the idea to write about women in prison. Sometime in 1971 Shivani received an invitation from a doctor in a Lucknow prison to come and meet the female inmates and listen to their stories. What started out as a visit turned into a powerful experience for Shivani, and she then became the medium for these women as Ira puts it. Shivani did not write to titillate as Ira put it, and instead wrote about crime without diluting the moral dimensions.

Ira is the chairperson of The DSC Prize for South Asian Literature for the 2012 Jaipur Literary Festival. She has worked in the publishing industry for many years, and was the managing editor of Dorling-Kindersley and chief editor of Roli Books India. Currently, she is the chief editor at India International Center.

Tune back in for Part-2 where Ira talks about the changes in Indian publishing and Jaipur Literary Festival.

Previous podcast interview with Ira on her mother Shivani.

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The Hindu festival Pongal is celebrated on 15th January all over South India. This harvest festival is to give thanks to the Sun god for a bountiful harvest, and takes place 21 days after the winter solstice.

In the former French colony of Pondicherry there is an interesting tradition where the Catholics celebrate Pongal to mark their festival of epiphany. Lourdes (Lulu) Louis Thiruvanjiam talks about this fusion of Hindu and Christian elements in their Pongal celebrations in the former French colony. This includes attending an early morning mass, and celebrating a traditional Pongal lunch with their family and friends.

Pongal is a dish that consists of rice and lentils that you cook in a claypot and let it boil over. But Lulu and the Catholics of Pondicherry make their pongal a little differently. Instead of milk, they use coconut milk as one of the ingredients in their preparation of Pongal, which is served with  a special gravy made up of  13 different types of vegetables.

Until about 25 years ago the Catholics of Pondicherry celebrated Pongal on January 15th like the Hindus. Due to a change announced by the Vatican – epiphany is now celebrated on the first Sunday after Christmas. Even though the dates have changed the tightly knit Catholic community of Pondicherry continue to celebrate Pongal with their mix of Hindu and Christian traditions.

This year Lulu celebrated Pongal with her family and friends on January 8th, one week ahead of the traditional Hindu celebration.

Lulu is the author of  Cuisine Traditionenelle de Pondichery.

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Naresh Fernandes is the author of  Taj Mahal Foxtrot that traces the history of jazz in Bombay, a thriving and important port city of India. Just like the American jazz age of the 1920s, there was an Indian jazz age in the 1920s that continued to grow and flourish until the 1940s.

At first it was American ministrels that arrived in Bombay in mid-19thc. The San Francisco Ministrels were the first band to arrive to this port city. But,  it was not until the 20thc that jazz became popular among a certain section of the city’s population. Bombay’s Taj Mahal hotel introduced the latest trends to its population, and jazz was certainly one of the latest trends that the hotel introduced in the 20thc.

“Hot music,” is how this new American brand of music was described in the early 20thc. Many of the musicians, mostly African-Americans, came to Bombay including Leon Abbey, Crickett Smith, Teddy Weatherford and others. This hot music became a big hit with musicians from Goa, who in turn introduced jazz elements into Hindi (Bollywood) cinema.  The influence of hot music was not limited to Indian cinema, but also influenced films in China since Shanghai.

Tune back for Part-2 of our interview with Naresh.

Apologies for the audio quality.

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In 2011 “Delhi Belly” proved to be unusual success in Bollywood. Unusual because this funny, comic thrilled is largely in English with a few sentences in Hindi thrown in. The film was dubbed in Hindi to make it accessible to a larger audience in India. “Delhi Belly” was also unusual since this was Los Angeles-based Akshat Verma’s first Bollywood screenplay.

In Part-2 of our conversation Akshat talks about studying and working in Los Angeles. He studied at UCLA’s film school,  where he wrote the first version of “Delhi  Belly” for  Richard Walter screenwriting class.  Originally titled “Say Cheese” Akshat had to wait 15 years before he saw his screenplay on the celluloid screen. He also talks about his current and future plans, which includes directing his first Bollywood film. At the moment he is busy writing a screenplay for Bollywood’s Yashraj Films.

Delhi Belly stars Imran Khan, Shennaz Treasury, Vir Das, Kunal Kapoor Roy, Poorna Jagannathan and Aamir Khan.

Director: Abhinay Deo

Music Director: Ram Sampath

You can check out Part-1 of our conversation with Akshat, where he talks about how Aamir Khan discovered his screenplay and how they went to make the film.