Take 3 Swapan Seth

When one is standing on the foot mat of one’s forties, things like ageing become a matter of concern. Which is why, Dr Andrew Weil’s Healthy Aging is like shitake mushrooms from heaven. Dr. Weil is a practical pooch. He does not believe in reversing ageing. But yup, his book is a marvellous read on how you can keep both medulla and muscle in working condition as you pole vault over the forties.

Now there’s no silly diet that he recommends, mercifully. I have no time for South Beach or North Rainforest kind of diet books. Instead the good doctor looks at cultural insights. He inspects the tropical Pacific paradise called Okinawa where the average life expectancy is 81.2 years. He then inspects what the blokes there eat: bitter melon, purple sweet potatoes, if you please.

The book has other pleasing parts to it as well. I personally found his comparing ageing with a good violin to be a striking observation. The book talks about additional antioxidant support and an anti-inflammatory diet. It ends with a simple, easy-to-follow 12-point programme for healthy ageing. But before you think I am leading you towards some tome, let me assure you that it has enough on sex and a bit of Sharon Stone. Overall, compulsory reading for Calcutta and Bengal Club members.

I first heard Andrea Bocelli in the drawing room of Komal and Ratul Sood’s oh-so-lovely pad in Calcutta six years ago. Ever since, I have been an evangelist of his music. Oddly, now one does hear Bocelli being played in some Delhi homes for which I can only beg forgiveness. They say if God had a voice, it would be that of Bocelli.

Now there are many Bocelli albums that have mushroomed since the first one. The reason I single out Andrea is because of its charming collaborative character. It takes immense courage to sing along with an 11-year-old. But Bocelli does it masterfully in the song Where Love Goes where he sings along with the incredibly talented Holly Stell. In another song, When a Child is born, he hooks up with a children’s choir.

Finally, in Sin Tu Amor he sings with The Gipsy Kings. Yet, the rest of the album is equally moving. You shake at hearing Con Te Partiro in which his signature style tears through the album. Tu Ci Sei is the perfect way to go off to sleep with someone you love. Bocelli is the towering tenor of our times. Expect a lot of opera in this column.

A film about human misery may not go down that well with most of you. But this is good cinema, believe me. The pedigree is in place: it has been written and directed by a three-time Oscar nominee called Mike Leigh. The plot of All or Nothing is largely the lives of simple people in this world. The setting is London. It could well be Collate. Essentially, the film revolves around a woman who leads a rather bitter and unimaginative life. She works. Her husband drives a London cab. Her daughter is devastatingly dejected and her grown up son, a lazy sod.

In sum, they live. But they do not have a life. And then suddenly, when tragedy strikes the family, they realise that there is a life they have and a life within them. I concede that the film is a bit of a drag but persevere through it for the end. Above all, see it for the absolutely compelling performances. Lesley Manville as the mother is outstanding. James Cordon who plays the son is superb as well. Finally, Leigh’s direction is flawless. It takes sheer genius to make something extraordinary out of ordinary lives. Leigh seems to have made a career out of it. All Or Nothing was featured in the 2002 Cannes Film Festival.

Photographs by Rupinder Sharma