Sunday Long Reads: Spirit of Chandigarh, Sandip Datta’s little magazine library, Urooj Ashfaq’s award-winning content, and more

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10 things about Chandigarh that will interest you

Capitol Complex. (Source: Wikimedia Commons)

1. In March 1948, the site for a new Capital was chosen, which was then a part of the erstwhile Ambala district.

2. In 1950, Le Corbusier was offered the design of the Capitol buildings on a plan designed by Albert Mayer.

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The legacy of Sandip Datta’s little magazine library

Associate professor and joint secretary of the Little Magazine Library, Snigdha Bandopadhyay, at the library, on College Street, Kolkata. (Credit: Shashi Ghosh)

It was 1972. A 21-year-old young scholar at the University of Calcutta, Sandip Dutta, encountered a distressing scene at the National Library: stacks and stacks of ‘little magazines’ tied and kept on the floor.

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Actor-director Danish Husain celebrates 11 years of his group with a play on Sahir Ludhianvi

Husain’s group, Hoshruba Repertory, rehearses Ek Punjab Yeh Bhi, at Prithvi Theatre, Mumbai

Actor-director Danish Husain’s experience with Sahir Ludhianvi can strike a chord throughout India. When the heart is broken, there is Humne to jab kaliyan mangi kaaton ka haar mila, while Yeh duniya agar mil bhi jaye toh kya hai (Pyaasa, 1957) has the appeal of meeting defeat with defiance. When one is snubbed and decides to take it on the chin, there is always Main zindagi ka saath nibhata chala gaya (Hum Dono, 1961). “That’s the thing about great literature. It rises above personal experience, becomes universal, and then gets absorbed in a very personal level by the listener,” says Husain.

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How standup comic Urooj Ashfaq turned her life experiences into award-winning content

Ashfaq performing at the Edinburgh Comedy Awards at the Dovecot Studios in Edinburgh, on August 26

The historic Dovecot Studios in Edinburgh’s old town was packed on August 26 this year for the Edinburgh Comedy Awards. Waiting in the crowd was Urooj Ashfaq, a Mumbai-based standup comedian who has a knack for turning almost every experience into a joke. London’s Soho Theatre had brought her and other Indian standup comedians, such as Sapan Verma, Biswa Kalyan Rath and Abhishekh Upamanyu, to the Edinburgh Fringe, to showcase their stuff at the world’s largest festival of arts and comedy.

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Lunar Lessons: Climate change solution needs more brainstorming, less politicking

It’s time we put our heads together like those ISRO scientists did or, perforce, we may just have to go and live on the moon (Credit: Ranjit Lal)

There was much-justified celebration when Chandrayaan 3 gently let go of the Vikram lander, which touched down softly on the moon’s surface and then sent its Pryagyan rover off exploring. That too, where no spacecraft had dared to go before. This was a poke in the eye for the sceptical West, but for me, the message coming across was different.

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How Thailand’s Le Du restaurant tells Chef Ton’s story of making street food a fine-dining experience

Chef Ton from Thailand’s Le Du

Spicy, street food and cheap. These were words that were often used to describe Thai food, says Chef Thitid ‘Ton’ Tassanakajohn. A decade later, his modern Thai heritage fine-dining restaurant Le Du in Bangkok, which offers a four-course tasting menu featuring the agricultural bounty of Thailand and centuries-old culinary cultures, has overturned some of those stereotypes and made it to the number 1 spot on Asia’s 50 Best Restaurant list 2023. His other restaurant, Nusara, which opened its doors during the pandemic and offers a 12-course tasting menu served in the traditional Thai family style, made it to number 3 on the same list, making him the only Thai chef to have two restaurants on it.

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