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Navin Kundra sings for British Royalty, Bollywood next?

As Prince Charles and Duchess Camilla tour South Asia, singer Navin Kundra shares the excitement of singing for British Royalty.
by Salil Jayakar

British singer and songwriter Navin Kundra is a huge name in the UK – his remarkable career thus far includes performing with (and in front of) the Who’s Who of the Indian and international music scene, setting a Guinness Book Record by raising £10,000 for the British Asian Trust, and most recently, performing for Charles, Prince of Wales and Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall at the St James Palace on October 24, 2013.

It was about this latest performance for the British Royals that Salil Jayakar spoke to Navin about. Excerpts from the interview:

Salil Jayakar (SJ): Performing for the Royals… what was the experience like?

Navin Kundra with Royals 3Navin Kundra (NK): It was a dream come true! Being invited by the President of the British Asian Trust to perform for Royalty is just one of those things that you never expect to happen to you, and it happened to me. Definitely the biggest highlight of my career so far! It was a stunning experience and one which I will treasure for the rest of my life. Yes, I was extremely nervous.  I think anyone would be, and perhaps more so because I knew I was going to be singing in Hindi and Punjabi which are languages they aren’t most familiar with.

SJ: How did the opportunity come about?

NK: In 2011, I was invited to become a celebrity ambassador for the British Asian Trust (BAT), a charitable Trust founded by HRH The Prince Of Wales. That year I helped the Trust raise £10,000 by breaking a Guinness World Record for the biggest Bollywood dance to my song ‘Mehbooba’. Ahead of their tour of South Asia, the Royals held a reception party at St James’s Palace and the President of the Trust asked if I would perform for them.  My first reaction was, ‘Is this for real?’

Then the President casually added, “Navin, I don’t mean to add any pressure but last year the Royals did a tour of Australia and we got Kylie Minogue to perform at their pre-tour reception party…” Yes… I felt the pressure at that point, but I also knew that an opportunity like this only ever comes round once in a lifetime so I said yes as I jumped up and down with excitement!

SJ: You asked Prince Charles to call the Duchess of Cornwall ‘Mehbooba’. Were you worried at all about how they’d react?

NK: (Laughs) This was not at all planned so I had no time to think about how they would react. It was completely spontaneous and happened because I saw that they were enjoying my Navin Kundra with Royals 1performance and responding positively to the music, particularly during my rendition of the Kishore Kumar classic, ‘O Mere Dil Ke Chain’.  I chose that song because it is a Bollywood classic, and as the first British Asian artist to sing in St James’s Palace, I was representing both my South Asian and British roots so I wanted my performance to capture the versatility and riches of our culture and music, too.

After that song I offered to add to Prince Charles’ Hindi vocabulary saying it would help him whilst on tour. Indeed, everyone at The Palace burst into laughter when I said the word ‘Mehbooba’, and when Prince Charles said the word back with perfect pronunciation, everyone cheered (see pic on right).

SJ: What did the Royals say to you post the performance?

NK: They were very complimentary and told me that I have a stunning voice and enjoyed my music. They then asked me what ‘Mehbooba’ meant to which I replied ‘beloved’. I could see the relief on the Royal couple’s faces after I told them the English translation and I joked, “See… it’s not as bad as it sounds!”  They were very charming, thanked me for entertaining them and their guests, said they hoped to see me perform again and wished me good luck for my career. A few days ago I received a ‘thank you’ letter from them, which is now my prized possession!

Watch ‘Mehbooba’ here:

 

SJ: Many British Asians have made their mark in Bollywood over the years. Do you have any Bollywood aspirations?

NK: Bollywood is one of the biggest foundations of my music base and I would love to work in the industry and have my music featured in the movies. If I was to get the right opportunity, I would definitely take it up and am confident that I can bring a new fresh sound and voice to the scene. I plan to visit Mumbai in early December this year, so watch this space.

SJ: Famous last words…

NK: ‘Dare to begin’ because I am living proof [of the fact] that anything is possible. Five years ago, I never thought that I would have the opportunity to represent South Asians all over the world and sing for Royalty, I never thought that I would achieve six number one singles and break a Guinness World Record, or that I would be awarded the 2013 ‘Entertainer of the Year’ in the Houses of Parliament. All of this has happened because I took those first steps towards building on my dream and anyone can do it.

You don’t need to have a huge record label behind you, tonnes of financing or be related to the industry you want to break into, you just need laser focus – and that applies to any industry, not just music or entertainment.

Navin Kundra’s new single ‘PA NA NA’ releases on November 7, 2013 and is available to download on iTunes and other digital stores. For more on Navin, check out his digital presence at www.navin-online.com or visit his FB page at www.facebook.com/navinfanpage or tweet to him @NavinKundra.

(Pictures courtesy Navin Kundra)

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Love by candle light

This visually-challenged man won over a sighted woman and together, they run a candle-making business that employs other blind people.
by Vrushali Lad

They met over 10 years ago, when he was peddling scented candles that he made himself, in a corner of the market at Mahabaleshwar. A Mumbaikar on holiday to the tourist spot, she promised that she would come to help him sell candles while she was still there. Eight days later, she asked him to marry her.

“I was stunned,” says Bhavesh Bhatia (43), founder and proprietor of Sunrise Candles, an enterprise that began in a small room in Mahabaleshwar and is today headquartered in the same town in a professional manufacturing setup. “Several sighted people would come and help me out of sympathy, but this brave girl wanted to spend her life with me because she believed in me.”

The girl in question – Neeta (40), a Bhayander resident who had to work on convincing her family to let her marry Bhavesh – is today the backbone of a flourishing candle business and wax museum that employs 85 visually-challenged persons from the State and outside. “It was hard work at first, but I never lost sight of the fact that this was a man who was making a living despite his disability. He wanted to reach out to others like him, and I wanted to share that dream,” she smiles.

Small beginnings

Bhavesh BhatiaBhavesh was not born blind, but lost his eyesight gradually after a childhood illness. Not one to sit and lament his fate, he worked odd jobs to make money, but it was his stint at the National Association for the Blind’s (NAB) candle-making course in 1999 that changed his life.

“I learnt how to make plain white candles at NAB. Dyes and scents were extremely expensive,” Bhavesh remembers, revealing that in those days, he didn’t even have the money to buy himself a pair of slippers. “I saved Rs 25 every day from selling candles. I had a small board on which I set up candles and sold them at the market every day.”

This was how he met Neeta, and after their wedding, the couple lived in his small home in the hill station town. “We took a Rs 15,000 loan from Satara Bank, where NAB had a special scheme for blind people,” Neeta says. “From this, we purchased 15 kilos of wax, two dyes and a hand cart for Rs 50.”

Bhavesh would make candles all day, and there weren’t enough utensils to even melt the wax in. “I began to worry that the same vessels I cooked food in were used for candle-making,” Neeta laughs. Ever the optimist, she procured a two-wheeler to ferry her husband and his wares across town. Bhavesh first set up a table, then a larger stall. She later learnt to drive a van, which made things much easier.

World of light

Today, Sunrise Candles purchases wax from the UK, and has developed over 9,000 designs of plain, scented and aromatherapy candles. “We train blind people so that they can understand the work and not just help us at our unit, but some day go back home to set up their own business,” Bhavesh explains. “Neeta trains a lot of blind girls, and does all the work for the enterprise such as banking, handling the paperwork and managing our workshops and demonstrations.” With his team of helpers and volunteers, Bhavesh travels across India for exhibitions, delivering motivational talks, taking candle-making workshops and even imparting free training in places such as colleges and cancer associations. The couple has also set up a wax museum and a gymnasium for blind people at Mahabaleshwar.

From the days when Bhavesh didn’t have the money to purchase wax and dyes, to today, when “even 25 tonnes of wax is consumed in a day,” Sunrise Candles has indeed come a long Sunrise Candlesway. “It has been a wonderful journey with Neeta at my side,” Bhavesh says. “I wanted to prove that being blind is not the end of the world. It is not just about being employed – it is about having a sense of achievement through one’s work.”

Bhavesh is now working on creating the world’s tallest, unbreakable candle – to stand at 45 feet – for a world record. “The current record is for a 22-feet high candle made by a sighted person in the West. Our candle will be made entirely by my visually-challenged brothers and sisters. There is no question of whether we can do it – the question is, how are we going to do it the best possible way?” he grins.

If you want to order candles, or learn candle making, or wish to invite Bhavesh Bhatia for a motivation talk, contact Sunrise Candles at +91-98506 00634/94220 34729. You can also look up the company at www.sunrisecandles.in or write to them at info@sunrisecandles.in.

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Mumbai boy wins national DJ finals

Mumbai’s DJ Roane Ace won against 12 other shortlisted DJs; he will represent India at London in October this year.
by The Editors | editor@themetrognome.in

The DMC World DJ Championship, which is the prominent showcase for DJ talent around the world, held their India national finals two days ago. The finale had 13 top DJs from all across the country battling it out for the winner’s spot.

The shortlisted contestants were DJ Monty (from Pune), DJ Eshwar (Mumbai), DJ Manoj (Mumbai), DJ Skip (Delhi), DJ Craig (Chennai), DJ Kave (Chennai), DJ Raw-Z (Chennai) DJ V-key Arora (Delhi), DJ Navendu (Delhi), DJ Nipun (Mumbai), DJ Rahil Khan (Mumbai), DJ Roane Ace (Mumbai) and DJ Ishy (Delhi).

DJ Roane AceDJ Roane Ace (in picture on left) was chosen as the winner by an esteemed jury comprising Luke Kenny, DJ A-Myth and Sumit Shenoy. Leading turntablist DJ and artist URI Solanki hosted the event.

Roane Ace’s winning entry has earned him a chance to represent India in the world finals which will be held on October 5, 2013 in London. Additionally, the winner and the runners up of DMC 2013 will represent India at IDA that shall be held in Poland on December 7 this year.

On the eve of the finale, Abdul Salam Shaikh from Code 9, the firm that brought the championship to India said, “We had conceptualised this [event] with the aim of being able to recognise exceptional work in the world of DJing in India. It was exhilarating to witness the championship take shape, thanks to our esteemed partners and our esteemed panel of judges, who came on board to support this initiative.”

A spokesperson from DMC said, “The Indian finals were conducted on par with international standards, the audience received an opportunity to Judges with the winner DJ Roane Aceview some excellent sets by the contestants.”

Luke Kenny added, “I am overwhelmed by the unprecedented response received in the first installment of this championship. This platform was much needed to encourage, support and award the best budding DJs in India.”

 (Pictures courtesy Code 9)

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The artist of the opera

Mumbai’s Ratnadeep Adivrekar is the first Indian artist to exhibit his work at Wagner’s magnified opera in Germany, this month.
by Medha Kulkarni

It is said that when art beckons, all one can do is follow it.

Ratnadeep in his studio This was certainly the case with Goregaon-based artist Ratnadeep Gopal Adivrekar. The son of two artists, Ratnadeep (39) grew up in a home surrounded by art, and rebelled against it by opting to study Science instead. He pursued the subject determinedly until one day, in a sudden moment of clarity, he realised that all he wanted to do was paint. Since that day Ratnadeep has not looked back.

His journey as an artist began in 1997 and the road came with its ups and downs. However, Ratnadeep relentlessly pursued his art and today he is poised to become the first Indian artist to exhibit at the internationally celebrated Wagner’s magnified opera.

The exhibition consists of 16 works (see two examples below left and right), 10 of which are oils on canvas and the rest are charcoal and acrylic works. The works will travel to different cities in Germany for three weeks before being housed in the permanent collection at the Wagner Museum on July 19. The oil paintings represent iconic scenes from Wagner’s most celebrated operas and the charcoal and acrylic works try to paint a picture of the man himself, his life and the magic that has kept his works alive.

One of Ratnadeep's works to be shown at GermanyWhen asked what the most challenging part about working with his chosen medium was, he said, “Oils are suitable for large works, but the advantage of working with oils is also its disadvantage. The idea has to be pre-determined. One cannot go with the flow as is the case with charcoal and acrylics. However, with charcoal and acrylics, there is no room for error. One wrong brushstroke, and I have to start from scratch.”

It took one and half years of gruelling work to make this exhibition a reality. Ratnadeep spent some time in Germany, studying Wagner’s works. He also went to several operas and met with distinguished opera conductors to understand the nuances of an opera. “Western music is very different from Indian music, but Wagner’s operas have a lot of themes which are common to the Mahabharata as well, and that’s where I drew my inspiration from,” he says. Wagner operas were inspired by Nordic tales and the themes of love, power, greed etc. are common to those as well as the Mahabharata.

The conceptual style of the works shows layering and this reflects the multi-layered nature of Wagner’s operas themselves. Synthesia means a direct visual translation of music into paintings. “I didn’t experiment with synthesis as it tends to create very subjective work. I wanted my works to be accessible by a broad cross-section of viewers,” explains Ratnadeep.

According to him, the Wagner show is his “greatest artistic achievement to date”. The most challenging part, he elaborated, about working on this imageshow was the pan-cultural association. However, the works have been received well and he’s looking forward to the opening of the show on July 19.

On being asked if he would do more shows based on music he laughed and said, “No. Not for a long time at least.” Ratnadeep also has a solo show at the Tao Art Gallery in Mumbai later this year.

(Pictures courtesy Ratnadeep Gopal Adivrekar)

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Our girl in the Big Apple

Mumbai model Scherezade Shroff was chosen from thousands of bloggers to represent India for Sunsilk Style Studio in New York.
by Vrushali Lad | vrushali@themetrognome.in

Sherry ShroffShe’s anything but just a pretty face – a lawyer by qualification, a model by profession (she started modelling at age 16) and a marathon runner by choice, Scherezade Shroff was recently selected to represent India as part of Sunsilk Style Studio, an initiative in which Sunsilk flew 20 international bloggers to New York in May 2013.

Sherry – as Scherezade is more popularly known – was selected to represent the country from among thousands of fashion bloggers. “The girl they were looking for in each country had to fit the brief of a woman who had written her own story in life, had several different aspects to her personality and who was a fashion blogger,” Sherry told The Metrognome.

The initiative brought together fashion bloggers from 20 countries to spend four days in New York, during which they toured the city, attended workshops with the Sunsilk experts from the profession and participated in a photo shoot. On Day 1, the girls had a meet-the-others session, which helped break the ice – each girl had arrived in New York at different times, so there hadn’t been a proper catch-up session. “On Day 2, each girl was assigned an expert as per her hair type, and I was very lucky to have Jamal Hammadi – Shine Expert. We had the photo shoot with Anna Wolf and met with our expert for a discussion on hair,” Sherry explained. Each girl was also assigned a make-up person and wardrobe stylist, and the hair experts designed the girls’ looks in keeping with their hair requirements and what the shoot needed.

Sherry to the rescue

None of the other girls had a modelling background, and though they were avid fashion bloggers, none of them had ever participated in a photo shoot as a model before. “The shoot The photo shoot itself was designed to be fun, with a party theme and lots of fun props like blow-up cupcakes and an actual photo booth,” she said. “It didn’t seem like a photo shoot at all. But before it began, many of the girls came to me asking for tips on facing the camera. Yet once it got underway, despite the cameras, everybody had a blast! It was very relaxed and I think it was the funnest shoot I’ve ever been a part of,” she laughs.

Working with Jamal Hammadi

“I was very lucky to get Jamal, because he understood the problems of my hair perfectly. My hair is thick and difficult to manage because it gets dry and damaged pretty quickly. Plus it gets bigger and bigger in the Mumbai humidity,” Sherry explains. “I used to try taming it with oil, but washing off the oil took several tries and the problem just got worse. Jamal understood the problem and gave me a great haircut. He also recommended that I try avocado oil – it penetrated my hair quickly, it helped keep my hair in check and can you believe it, I actually shot with oiled hair? I couldn’t have imagined ever shooting with oiled hair!”

Even after her return to Mumbai on May 18, she is still surprised that her hair is behaving itself despite the humidity. “I don’t usually leave my hair open, but with Jamal’s haircut I actually can! I used to be very anti-oil and serum, but now Jamal’s advised me on the right oils to use,” Sherry explained.

Post the New York sojourn

“While I was still at New York, I did a lot of video blogs and updated my regular blog as well,” Sherry explained. “I am now working on editing these videos and uploading them one by one.”

More from Sherry’s New York visit:

 (Sherry video blogs at www.youtube.com/fashiontube and writes here. Pictures courtesy Scherezade Shroff)

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Mumbai doctor scales Mount Everest

Dr Murad Lala is the first doctor from India to scale the world’s highest mountain. The journey took two months.
by The Editors | editor@themetrognome.in

Scaling the highest mountain in the world must give one a huge high. Setting a record in the process must be simply fabulous.

Dr. Murad E. LalaMumbai-based consultant oncosurgeon Dr Murad Lala reached the summit of Mount Everest on May 19 this year at exactly 9.10 am to become the first doctor in India to have summitted the mountain successfully. Dr Lala, attached to the PD Hinduja Hospital, Mahim, took seven weeks of climbing to reach the top.

Mount Everest is 29,035 feet high and lies in the Himalayas along the border of Nepal, China and Tibet. Dr Lala set out on the journey from Mumbai on March 28. “I reached Kathmandu the same day,” he said. “After completing the formalities set by the Nepal Government, my team and I set out on April 1 to Lukla and from there, we walked approximately 63 km and reached the base camp on April 8.” From there on, it was a short three-hour journey to Camp 2, and from Camp 2 to 3, and from Camp 3 to Camp 4 was a journey of approximately 16 hours in all. “The whole process of climbing Everest takes time because mountaineers believe in ‘scaling high and resting low’, which means even though one reaches Camp 1, climbers have to come back the same evening to base camp and rest. This is done so that one’s body gets acclimatised to high altitudes,” Dr Lala explained.

Why Everest?

Dr Lala said, “Since childhood I always I had this dream of climbing Mount Everest. The Hinduja Hospital management has been kind enough to allow me to take time off and realise my Dr Lala (second from left) with Mr Lele (first from left), Ms Vinoo Hinduja (second from right), Dr Bhaleroa (first from right)dream. Trekking the Everest is a no mean task. I did my training by doing the ‘Triple Crown Expedition’, which means scaling the three peaks Lobuche East – (6,119 metres high), Pokalde (5,806 metres) and Island Peak (6,145 metres).

“We were a group of eight (excluding the personal sherpas and Western guide, Marty Schmidt) and our group motto was ‘One Team, One Dream’. The 12-hour journey was the walk of a lifetime for me. When I finally reached the top, I finally realised that just because we are ordinary people, it does not mean we cannot have extraordinary dreams.”

Congratulating Dr Lala for his accomplishment, Dr Gustad Daver, Director-Professional Services, PD Hinduja Hospital said, “Dr Lala, apart from being an excellent cancer surgeon with our hospital since 2001, has been an epitome of courage and determination by achieving this act. As a fellow consultant, I feel proud that he has managed to excel in his professional life and in the same time achieved his personal dream to become the first doctor from India to have scaled the Everest.”

(Pictures courtesy Dr Murad Lala)

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