Loving right now

A list of Indian Link’s current favourites

Watch

Doing the rounds of the international film festival circuit, Nandita Das’ Manto has just screened in Sydney after Cannes. It is based on the maverick writer and creative rebel Saadat Hasan Manto (1912-1955), whose short stories are set in the backdrop of Partition (Toba Tek Singh, Khol Do, Thanda Gosht). Written in the language of the streets, they saw him hauled in to court on numerous occasions, but each time he argued in favour of freedom of speech. That’s what makes him so relevant, some seventy years on. As Das said in Sydney, the film is a call to your inner Manto, the part that wants to be truthful and courageous and stand up to orthodoxies of all kinds.

Listen

Canadian podcast Bollywood is For Lovers (BiFL) is well worth a try for your daily filmi fix. A fortnightly podcast presented by Alberta-based film buffs Matt Bowes and Erin Fraser, it is aimed at “introducing people to this vibrant 100 year-old film tradition”. In each episode, the selected films are discussed down to the very last detail – the social milieu in which the stories are based, cinematic issues, subplots, comparisons with other films of the genre, the marketing. Oh, and celebrity gossip as well, revealing how well the presenters know the desi setting. For us, what it boils down to, is looking at ourselves through the eyes of another. And enjoying that firang-accented Hindi!

Read Eat

It’s cheat day and you are salivating at the thought of digging into some mouthwatering Indian mithai but your 6-year-old Aussie puttar wants ‘something normal’ – ie, not Indian. Well, look no further. Sarika Deokar from Sweet Treats Melbourne has the perfect solution for you. Rasmalai cake! The home baker with a Human Resources background and a creative flair finds sweet satisfaction in adding the flavours of India to her yummylicious cakes. It’s a two-day process: making the rasmalai, then the syrup, baking the cake, creating the icing, and finally decorating it with pistachios almonds and rasmalais. A few hours’ work, that will be a moment on your lip and a lifetime on your hip. But hey, it’s cheat day! And your child gets to have his cake and eat it too. Win-win, we say...

You can’t empower women without listening to their stories. NZ-based authors Geoff Blackwell and Ruth Halliday bring us empowering stories from across the globe in their book 200 Women. In answers to five questions, the subjects reveal their motivations and hopes, high points and low points, and pick a word that they most identify with. Read stories related by corporate women, environment activists, entertainers, Hollywood stars, home-makers, artisans and many more. From India, check out actor Vidya Balan, activist Vandana Shiva and youth entrepreneur Divya Kalia among others. Just as catching are the portraits of the 200 women, taken by Kieran E Scott against the same backdrop. Proceeds from sales go towards women’s causes around the world.