Second coming

After a seven-year hiatus, Ruchir Joshi is at it again. The writer-film-maker, who hit big time in the global literary circuit with his debut novel The Last Jet-Engine Laugh in 2001, is currently back at his writing table, penning his second novel. “It’s based on Calcutta during the Second World War,” reveals Joshi of his new project, though he admits it’s too early to say anything more concrete about it. Well, the readers can wait, and meanwhile, keep themselves occupied with the short films he has churned out through the recent past. Such as A Mercedes for Ashish, — a film that he made on the traffic situation and urban mess in modern-day Delhi a couple of years ago, and which was shown at the capital’s India Habitat Centre on Thursday. Joshi also says he plans to start work on a couple of more films in the near future. Well, let’s just take it one at a time.

Brown study

We have all heard about poets holed up in garrets. But now comes the story of one who lived as a recluse on a Scottish island, and whose works have just been immortalised by a biographer. Maggie Fergusson (pic left), secretary to the Royal Society of Literature, was in Calcutta recently to speak about Scottish poet George Mackay Brown. “I was introduced to his works by a cousin and went over to meet him in Orkney,” narrates Fergusson. “The first meeting was a ‘non interview’,” she says. However, she managed to meet Brown again and slowly got an insight into the man and his works. “Here was a brilliant raconteur who was also a very good mimic and I was introduced to a sensitive man whose biography I would eventually write,” recalls Fergusson. She dug out a lot of material — including his letters — for the biography. It took her 10 years to write it — and, clearly, it’s been well worth the wait. The bard of Orkney, who died at 75 in 1996, would have been happy.

Yuvi, stumped

Deepika Padukone can’t seem to make up her mind when it comes to the men she wants to date. Just when we all thought that she and cricketer Yuvraj Singh were an item, the actress was spotted with Ranbir Kapoor. The grapevine has it that Ranbir and she were once a pair but broke up — and the parting was silent and bitter. However, the two supposedly patched up recently while they were shooting for an advertisement. And now not only are they meeting for dinners and late night coffees, they are also acting out a Yash Raj film together. The couple was recently spotted in Mumbai, shopping for a music system at a suburban five-star hotel’s shopping plaza. So what does Yuvi have to say about all this? That his maiden’s been bowled over?

Shoot at sight

As if Pablo Bartholomew and Ram Rahman were not enough. Even as Delhi happens to be spoilt for choice in trying to decide between the two Indian photographers, whose works are being showcased at different exhibitions in the city, photography lovers in the capital have been swept off their feet by a true blast from the past. The Photograph: painted, posed and of the moment, an exhibition on at the National Gallery of Modern Art till February 13, brings to the city vintage photographs from the famous E. Alkazi Collection, which tell of the advent of photography and its popularity among contemporary royalty, apart from a retrospective collection of photographs by pioneering Indian photographer Umrao Singh Sher-Gil. And that’s not all. The exhibition also features French photo agency Magnum, who have brought to town a selection of splendid images shot across India by 14 of their photographers, including Henri Cartier-Bresson, Raghu Rai (pic left), Alex Majoli, John Vink and Steve McCurry. Suddenly, life’s a cheese.