nashik – The Metrognome

Sula Fest 2015: A roundup

Nashik rocked – like it annually does – as it hosted the Sula Fest, its wine, food and music jamboree.

by Salil Jayakar | @Salilicious on Twitter

All roads from Mumbai led to Nashik over the weekend where Sula Vineyards was hosting Sula Fest – its annual wine, food and music jamboree. Naturally, the mood among the revelers was quite high what with all the free flowing wine.

But among the usual wine and cheese tasting tours, the music and the food, here’s our pick of the unusual and interesting…

Everyone’s favourite ad man Prahlad Kakkar (seated at extreme left in pic) caught us quite by surprise as he deftly took orders and dished out plates of vegetarian and chicken biryani at the food court! The ad man popped up a stall for his office cook who has been making meals for him for the past 40 years. “My cook makes the best biryani. Till some years ago, we had an open house in my office every Saturday where we’d feed 15 to 20 people,” he said.

We were thrilled to see winemaker Hardys at Sula this year who came on board as wine partner. As we sampled their reds and whites with Thai prawns curry and veg ravioli, we got chatting with Mumbai girl Najeshda Deshpande, Sula’s import manager. Born and raised in Vile Parle, Najeshda’s (means ‘Hope’ in Russian) love affair with wine began on a holiday in Australia. “I was done with number crunching and didn’t quite know what to do next. I made friends with wine-making surfers and here I am today,” she told us. You go girl!

Celebrity chef Saransh Goila (in pic on right) who’s quite the regular now at all such dos kept us quite entertained over the two-days we hung out with him. The reality TV star is all set to release his first book, a travelogue with recipes from his travels. The 70,000-words tome should be an exciting read, we hope. “My favourite author Ruskin Bond kindly consented to write a few words for me in the book. I’m thrilled!” said Saransh.

By far the biggest draw on Day 1 at Sula Fest was the American indie rock band Young the Giant with the ‘desi’ connect. Lead singer Sameer Gadhia, half-Gujarati and half-Bengali, was studying Human Biology at Stanford before he dived headlong into the music scene. With performances at the Video Music Awards a few years ago and a Top 50 appearance on the Billboard 200 albums chart, this desi boy had the girls swooning.

Chief winemaker Ajoy Shaw took us on a tour of the Sula cellars and we came away quite impressed with their sustainability efforts. The cellar has skylights to let in natural light and also has two entire roofs with solar panels that provide almost 15 per cent of their electricity requirements. With rainwater harvesting, composting, spot application at vineyards and encouraging natural predators, Sula’s green efforts are quite commendable. “Our aim is to reduce our water consumption by 5 per cent every year and do our bit to conserve natural resources,” he said.

‘Nothing happens in India unless legally enforced’

A follow-up on our story on the demand for a separate university for the physically impaired, and what it entails.

by The Editors | editor@themetrognome.in

Yesterday, we reported that a delegation from the National Association for the Blind (NAB) had visited the Maharashtra State Governor K Shankarnarayan last week, on the occasion of White Cane Day, and during the discussion, a demand for a separate university for the visually and physically disabled had been put up by the NAB state head, Rameshwar Kalantari.

Speaking to The Metrognome from Nashik, Kalantari said, “There was a reason for this demand. There are several colleges and universities in the state, but they all cater to normal people without any disabilities. Even the study material and courses are designed for normal people, which is why several disabled students drop out of the education system after class 10. This is especially true of visually-impaired students.”

He explained that a lack of textbooks and study material in Braille beyond class 10 is a big deterrent for visually-challenged students. “We have to prepare CDs that recite the lessons for them, and they require computers or other recording equipment to replay the material. It is very expensive to produce higher studies’ textbooks in Braille, because of the volume of material to be reproduced. Also, the books are very heavy to carry,” he said.

He stressed the need for the inclusion of such courses in the curricula that would encourage disabled

students to pursue such courses as social work, music, physiotherapy and others, which are difficult at the current moment. “There is also the problem of disabled-friendly infrastructure to be put in place all over the country, especially in government buildings and educational institutions. In our country, unfortunately, nothing happens unless there is a legal compulsion to do something. These things will be implemented only if bureaucrats make it compulsory,” he said.

Kalantari further argued that if there could be separate universities for women (such as the SNDT University and colleges in Mumbai), the demand for a separate university for the disabled was a justified one. “Yes, there is an argument against it, that it will isolate this class of students from mainstream education. But it needs to be done for the purposes of their education. It is a pity that the country has only one such university at Chitrapur in Uttar Pradesh.”

He added that the Governor has asked him to send a formal letter to forward to the government soon, and he is currently in the process of drafting it.

(Picture courtesy www.bauk.org.uk)