Sunday Long Reads: Delhi’s aura of power, Mona Singh on ‘Jassi Jaissi Koi Nahin’, Rahul Mishra’s French connection, and more

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‘Everyone in my building was watching Jassi but no one knew that I lived there’: Mona Singh

Mona Singh was last seen in Made In Heaven 2.

In September 2003, actor Mona Singh made a much-hyped entry into the world of entertainment as a spirited plain Jane, whose chunky spectacles, braces and bangs kept her real looks hidden. As she played the protagonist of the big-ticket daily soap Jassi Jaissi Koi Nahin, hoardings and billboards were put up everywhere, whipping up intrigue and excitement around Jassi. “No one knew how I looked. But hearing about the reaction to the show was pretty overwhelming even though I was mostly shooting every single day and returning home late. On certain days, when I would return early, from every floor of my building I could hear Jassi Jaissi Koi Nahin playing on television at 9:30 pm. Everyone in my building was watching Jassi but no one knew that I lived there,” says Singh.

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Why the Indian Constitution was conceived for a functioning democracy, not an electoral autocracy

You Must Know Your Constitution By Fali S Nariman

Why is a journalist with no background in law like myself presumptuous enough to review legal luminary Fali Nariman’s latest book? Because the beauty of this lucidly written, extensively researched must-read guidebook to the Constitution is that it is meant for all Indians, not just lawyers and academics. In a very readable style enlivened by riveting anecdotes, the author gives us the background to the framing of the founding document of the republic and its slow evolution in terms of interpretation by the courts. He tries to avoid getting bogged down by unnecessary technicalities and legalese which would intimidate the layman.

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John Zubrzycki’s latest focuses on the end of the British Raj and the dissolution of the princely order

Dethroned: Patel, Menon and The Integration of Princely India by John Zubrzycki

German chancellor Otto von Bismarck had to win a few wars before he could unify Germany. India’s own Bismarck, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, accomplished a far bigger and more complex unification before and after Independence. When his initial plans for an independent India went awry, a desperate Lord Mountbatten turned to his senior-most Indian civil servant VP Menon, giving him a single night to devise a plan for Independence. Menon met his deadline, presenting his Menon Plan which would play midwife to India’s birth as a free nation. Dethroned, John Zubrzycki’s latest offering focuses on the period 1947-50, which saw the end of the Raj and the dissolution of the princely order.

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Bats can help us devise better gadgets for people with visual impairment

Fruit bats hanging from a tree (Credit: Ranjit Lal)

Thanks to Nipah and Covid-19 (and rabies), which they have been accused of spreading, bats are not currently a favourite among most people. What we tend to overlook is their invaluable pollination and pest control services, the fact that they’re the only mammals known to fly properly — and in hunting prey in pitch darkness, home in on their targets with more precision than a heat-seeking laser-guided missile.

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When designer Rahul Mishra walked into Picasso’s favourite bookshop in Paris

Now that Paris is almost his second home, Mishra uses his spare time to visit museums to see the originals that inspired him.

In many ways, couturier Rahul Mishra knew France from his childhood as he would leaf through the works of the Impressionist masters on lazy summer afternoons. He was particularly rivetted by Henri Rousseau whose series of jungle paintings inspired his rainforest collection of layered foliage and floral appliques, each fold and flap nudging you to another surprise beneath them. “I could connect his work to our traditional Pichchvai paintings, where artistes depict Nature with the delicacy of the subtlest detail like a leaf vein. Both came alive in my collection,” says the designer, who has showcased his works in Paris for 13 seasons and has recently been conferred the Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French government.

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Fitzcarraldo Editions has four of the last nine literature Nobel laureates on its list. Founder Jacques Testard on the British indie publishing house’s unusual success story

From left: Rosie Brown, Tamara Sampey-Jawad, Jacques Testard and Joely Day in FitzcarraldoÕs one-room office in London on Oct. 12, 2022. Fitzcarraldo Editions is not yet 10 years old and has only six full-time staff members. Since its founding, three of its authors have been awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature. (Kalpesh Lathigra/The New York Times)

The top prize in literature is notoriously elusive, with many publishing titans not even coming close to winning it in their whole lifetimes. Fitzcarraldo Editions, a tiny independent press launched in 2014, publishes four out of the last nine authors to have won the Nobel in Literature.

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