Latest news with #JLF
News18
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- News18
The Scratch and Sniff Chronicles: Book mixes Bengali mystery with gothic flair
Agency: PTI Last Updated: New Delhi, Jul 20 (PTI) Blending elements of Bengal's detective tradition with gothic fiction, a new book promises a gripping whodunnit laced with humor and unexpected twists and turns. 'The Scratch and Sniff Chronicles", published by Niyogi Books, is written by Singapore-based writer Hemangini Dutt Majumder. 'Murder mysteries are my happy place. I unabashedly love every trope related to the whodunnit style. That said, the germ of this novel really came from the lead protagonist Olympia Ghoshal Chattergé, or Ollie, the likable doofus, who has lived in my head for several years. '… I thought it would be fascinating to flip the script and make her condition a sort of super-power rather than an affliction," Majumder, who previously authored children's book 'The Mystery of the Many, Many Missing Things", said in a statement. The story follows Ollie, a young woman with an uncanny sense of smell, an unusual symptom of a health condition, and a rare female wine sommelier and beverage consultant. Her life changes quite dramatically when she and her entire family decide to relocate to their ancestral estate, Neelbari, in Chandannagar, where strange and mysterious incidents begin to unfold. 'Is the malevolent spirit of her great-grandmother really haunting Neelbari? And why has their arrival caused so much alarm? What secrets are the walls and gardens of the hundred-year-old estate hiding? Why does no one seem to be telling the truth? What follows is a gripping whodunnit with ample doses of humour and delicious twists and turns?" are among the questions that unravel in the story. The book is endorsed by the likes of celebrated writer and Jaipur Literature Festival (JLF) co-director Namita Gokhale and former diplomat TCA Raghavan. While Raghavan lauds Majumder for bringing to life a 'lovable but eccentric Bengali family with wit and empathy", Gokhale described the novel as a 'multilayered literary tribute to the classical Bangla whodunnit". 'It is an olfactory journey through stories and spectres and scary situations," she added. The book, priced at Rs 495, is available for purchase across online and offline stores. PTI MG MG MG view comments First Published: July 20, 2025, 14:30 IST Disclaimer: Comments reflect users' views, not News18's. Please keep discussions respectful and constructive. Abusive, defamatory, or illegal comments will be removed. News18 may disable any comment at its discretion. By posting, you agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.
The Print
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- The Print
‘The Scratch and Sniff Chronicles': Book mixes Bengali mystery with gothic flair
'Murder mysteries are my happy place. I unabashedly love every trope related to the whodunnit style. That said, the germ of this novel really came from the lead protagonist Olympia Ghoshal Chattergé, or Ollie, the likable doofus, who has lived in my head for several years. 'The Scratch and Sniff Chronicles', published by Niyogi Books, is written by Singapore-based writer Hemangini Dutt Majumder. New Delhi, Jul 20 (PTI) Blending elements of Bengal's detective tradition with gothic fiction, a new book promises a gripping whodunnit laced with humor and unexpected twists and turns. '… I thought it would be fascinating to flip the script and make her condition a sort of super-power rather than an affliction,' Majumder, who previously authored children's book 'The Mystery of the Many, Many Missing Things', said in a statement. The story follows Ollie, a young woman with an uncanny sense of smell, an unusual symptom of a health condition, and a rare female wine sommelier and beverage consultant. Her life changes quite dramatically when she and her entire family decide to relocate to their ancestral estate, Neelbari, in Chandannagar, where strange and mysterious incidents begin to unfold. 'Is the malevolent spirit of her great-grandmother really haunting Neelbari? And why has their arrival caused so much alarm? What secrets are the walls and gardens of the hundred-year-old estate hiding? Why does no one seem to be telling the truth? What follows is a gripping whodunnit with ample doses of humour and delicious twists and turns?' are among the questions that unravel in the story. The book is endorsed by the likes of celebrated writer and Jaipur Literature Festival (JLF) co-director Namita Gokhale and former diplomat TCA Raghavan. While Raghavan lauds Majumder for bringing to life a 'lovable but eccentric Bengali family with wit and empathy', Gokhale described the novel as a 'multilayered literary tribute to the classical Bangla whodunnit'. 'It is an olfactory journey through stories and spectres and scary situations,' she added. The book, priced at Rs 495, is available for purchase across online and offline stores. PTI MG MG MG This report is auto-generated from PTI news service. ThePrint holds no responsibility for its content.
Hindustan Times
14-07-2025
- Science
- Hindustan Times
Claudia de Rham: 'The notion of time is not absolute'
What motivated you to dedicate your life to gravity research? Physicist and author Claudia de Rham at the Jaipur Literature Festival 2025 (JLF) It was always clear in my mind. When I started writing the book, it became clear that there could never have been anything else. I think gravity is fun and almost teasing us, right? It's always there all around us, and because we know it's going to be something we can't avoid, it pushes us to challenge it. We all like to play with it by dropping things and seeing if we can prevent them from falling. From the point of view of theoretical physics, what I like about it is its beautiful symmetry. It's universal and affects everyone in the same way, which is beautiful at a fundamental level. What is the universality of gravity? In the book, you recall this through an interesting experiment done by Apollo 15 commander David Scott in 1971. When he went to the moon, he dropped a feather and a hammer, and both objects fell at the same rate... That's right. It's counterintuitive, and it forces us to think about gravity differently. I love that it's also part of teasing us. You realize there's nothing more beautiful, symmetric and perfect when gravity is not affected by size, texture, or weight in different ways. Gravity affects our motion in spacetime because it changes spacetime. It gives it some curvature. And so, what makes it very interesting is when we evolve through this spacetime, we are accommodating for the presence of the mass. What is very special about gravity is that it does that to everybody in the same way. So, if you imagine two cells of our body living in that spacetime, they live in the same spacetime and experience the same curvature and gravity. They are not going to be changed or affected differently. 226pp, ₹1911; Princeton University Press And yet gravity cannot be felt. Why? Think about how we hear something. Sound waves stretch in different directions in our eardrum in different ways, and that's how they affect our body. That's how we can hear each other. If you push me, you will affect me by putting pressure on my cells. Different cells will respond differently. This distinction between the different cells enables me to hear or feel this feeling of other things, of pressure. Yet, gravity is not going to do that differently for different cells. In a local body, the effect of gravity would be the same for everything, for everyone. It's this beautiful symmetry behind gravity, which we call the universality of gravity, which means that, locally, you can't distinguish between differences. There will not be any cell in our body that experiences gravity, per se. To experience gravity at a fundamental level, like a force, you need to experience gravity through gravitational waves. But you can imagine it took us 100 years to feel instruments sensitive enough to feel the first gravitational waves. And those instruments are kilometres wide, so there's not something present in our own body that will experience gravity, at least not anytime soon. What is gravity? Gravity is the manifestation of how different points in space and time are connected together. In sum, it is the curvature of spacetime. This definition allows us to make predictions verified with impeccable precision. The information about how we will be affected by gravity is very much encoded into how we are affected by our curved environment. If you imagine yourself in a curved environment, going in a straight line may look different compared to someone in a different environment. That's how we are affected by gravity. We are affected by the curvature of spacetime in which we live. How would you define 'spacetime'? Now, you are going into the notion of space and time. We don't have an accurate definition of time. To return to some era of time, we must return to some notion of thermodynamics in some flow of the entropy. Entropy captures information about how things get disordered and the order in nature. We know that there is direction towards which things always become increasingly disorganised. And you can associate this with the notion of the flow of time -- the evolution of the entropy in the universe. Deep down, the notion of time is a human way of appreciating things around us. What we know is that time is not universal. We feel an evolution of time, but this is us simplifying a more abstract concept. The notion of time is not absolute. Is gravity an abstract concept even though it feels tangible? Gravity is a force. When we explain science to the public, we sometimes emphasise what we don't know because we want to make it exciting. But we do understand gravity very well. We also understand that gravity, like electromagnetism, electricity and magnetism, is a force deep down. However, gravity is not just the instantaneous force expressed by Newton. That representation works well in some limits, but it's not very close to what is happening. We experience gravity through what we call tidal forces. We have detected the force of gravity through the tidal forces of gravitational waves as they pass through our instruments. The first signal was in 2015, exactly when we observed the effect of gravitational waves, and since then, there have been hundreds of events where we've seen that effect coming in. The thing about gravity is that it goes both ways. A mass has an effect on gravity by curving space and time around itself. And any mass does that. The fact that a mass, like the sun or the Earth, affects gravity by giving it a curvature means that if you take anything else like another mass, or even no mass, it will experience gravity. It will experience this curvature, and therefore, it will experience, through gravity, through the curvature, the presence of this mass. We feel the mass of the Earth because the Earth curves the spacetime around itself, and we're living in that spacetime. And so that's how we feel the gravitational attraction of the earth. What breakthroughs are happening in gravity research, and how are they affecting our lives? All the progress made in understanding gravity in the past 200 years, we are using it right now, like your phone. This understanding affects the technologies that your phone uses to communicate with satellites. It incorporates the small corrections in the curvature of spacetime perceived by the satellites in orbit above our heads and accommodates the difference between what we feel here on Earth. These are differences from our understanding of the curvature of spacetimes through Einstein's laws of general relativity. We couldn't use any device if we didn't account for such a difference. So, we already use this understanding in all technologies you use daily. Wherever you drive or the transport or telecommunication system you use, you're using our understanding of gravity at a level beyond our imagination. Now, of course, trying to understand gravity at an even more fundamental level, you may ask, have we got what we wanted out of it? Do we need to go deeper? But really, who is to tell how much and how do we know? Because when Einstein came up with the theory of general relativity, he didn't have in mind that people would be using it for mobile phones or satellites and all sorts of technologies; it came from understanding the laws of nature at a more fundamental level. Nowadays, it's very important to keep exploring the world around us, not just with the finality of us using it for a particular problem that we have today. We don't know what problems we will have tomorrow, and we don't even know how to address them. So, we must keep looking for different patterns in our understanding of nature. From that, we'll be able to apply them to all of the problems that will come tomorrow, all of the problems of quantum technology and quantum computing that we are developing today. Can you explain how your research is fundamental in understanding the Big Bang Theory? Yes. For instance, when we're trying to understand how to make sense of the laws of gravity in our quantum regime at the very centre of black holes, it challenges our understanding of space and time. We need to have a description that is beyond the notion of space and time in very, very curved environments where the curvature scale, the temperature, if you want, is very, very high. And those kinds of environments at the very centre of black holes is very similar to what happens at the very beginning of the universe. At the Big Bang, the Universe was born. We believe it was an explosion of spacetime, where all of spacetime in all of space in all of its infinite infinity was created. Understanding how gravity behaves in those environments would allow us to understand how gravity behaves at the very beginning of the universe, what goes beyond the very notion of time, and being able to understand what is beyond our universe, and what is beyond the very origin of the universe. That's so mind-altering. As a woman scientist who is a leading theoretical physicists, what challenges have you faced? The challenges are not necessarily when there are some outspoken biases; you can then deal with them, be upset, address them, and move on. I think it's more the unspoken rules. I think it's more of these constant, slight power games, which is very difficult to address because they're not outspoken, are not out there, and are not tangible for everybody. If you do something to a given level, be it as a man or a woman, it means the same. It doesn't matter. But when whatever you do bears the flag of you being a woman doing it, then it becomes a challenge. I try to separate myself from it and do the best I can because I am a person doing science, not just a woman. Kanika Sharma is an independent journalist.
Economic Times
24-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Economic Times
Move over SoBo, Lutyens...Jaipur's where they really Royalty cosplay
JI HUZOOR, NAHIN HUZOOR, THREE BAGS FULL HUZOOR Yes, parties still happen in Mumbai and Delhi. But where does Dua Lipa perform on NYE? Where do film stars go when they want privacy? Jaipur. The Pink City has nurtured a distinct party culture that isn't a spillover from Delhi or Bollywood but something its own. Jaipur has long had its high-society ecosystem, rooted in royalty, polo, and heritage venues, drawing elite celebs, both Indian and global. Grand palace hotels offer a kind of luxury that Mumbai and Delhi, for all their opulence, struggle to replicate. But Jaipur has also evolved. A newer creative class - designers, artists, hoteliers - has deepened the city's cultural capital. Edgy new labels blend modern minimalism with craft heritage. Design schools thrive alongside block printers. Art residencies and pop-ups share space with durbars. Vivienne Westwood may still launch in Mumbai. But Rahul Mishra takes Rajasthan to Paris Couture Week. Jaipur Literature Festival (JLF) began at the historic Diggi Palace. Even as it now unfolds across larger venues like Hotel Clarks Amer, its spirit remains royal boho. A writer's ball at The Leela Palace, a poetry reading under frescoed ceilings... the result is a literary scene with enough glitter to keep the global gaze returning. The polo circuit is key. Padmanabh Singh, 'maharaja' of Jaipur, is often dubbed the 'new polo prince'. Many of the city's exclusive parties orbit around the sport, bringing together aristocrats, industrialists, and an international crowd. These gatherings double as soft diplomacy and old-money networking, wrapped in candlelight and designers once came to Jaipur to 'source', Ralph Lauren recently sponsored a gala dinner to raise funds for the Princess Diya Kumari Foundation. Diljit Dosanjh has performed here. International Indian Film Academy Awards (IIFA) chose Jaipur for its silver jubilee least one princess of yore now serves as a luxury brand ambassador. Gayatri Devi, 'brand ambassador of Rajasthan', never exchanged her name for official endorsement. She was a real princess -- until India abolished titles in an active - even public - palace life contribute to Jaipur's contemporary relevance? There's a connection between private palace parties shared on social media, and Jaipur's climb on global 'best party cities' lists. If Gaj Singh - who made Jodhpur a post-liberalisation destination by turning one part of his palace into a heritage hotel and hosting elite New Year parties - then descendants of Jaipur's royalty have carried that spirit forward by carving a niche for a certain kind of party, ticking all the right boxes of local heritage and global polish. Socially exclusive, but not as performative as Delhi. Culturally insidious in its way. If you're not inside the palace rubbing shoulders with modern courtiers, you're at the hotel next door, close enough to feel the aura. There's a sense of authenticity to the 'heritage'. A 2019 Daily Mail story asked, 'Would you go and stay with the world's most eligible royal?' It continued, 'Maharajah of Jaipur, 21, who's just listed his palace on Airbnb, boasts a £500 mn fortune, has modelled for D&G, and counts A-listers as friends.'It's about old-money ease, and quiet cultural prestige - the kind of soft spectacle where the powerful flex their might be it via an untagged post, or a centuries-old motif reinterpreted on a linen napkin. Just ask Priyanka Chopra Jonas. Or David Jaipur's cultural success also raises an unresolved question: should we still be backing a 'princess' brand in a land where royal titles were abolished by law? India was meant to break from feudalism, not repackage it for global consumption. Yet, the appetite for soft power royalty remains, just as Britain clings to the Windsors, or binges on 'The Crown'. Now, we too have 'Royals', a fictional version on a streaming platform. The difference? Brits still have a real crown. For us, as one 'royal' insider put it, 'It's a shortcut. The dazzle isn't built on substance. That makes it an unstable model.'Still, the illusion holds - by filtered Instagram stories, curated guest lists, and a heritage that never fades. The crowns may be gone, but in Jaipur, performative royalty plays on: globally admired, digitally staged, and always just out of reach. (Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this column are that of the writer. The facts and opinions expressed here do not reflect the views of Elevate your knowledge and leadership skills at a cost cheaper than your daily tea. 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Khaleej Times
10-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Khaleej Times
MasterChef Australia's Matt Preston: 'Cuisines are like children – I love them all'
The Speaker's Lounge at Jaipur Lit Fest (JLF) was filled with the delectable aroma of freshly baked chocolate au pain as the pale afternoon light filtered through the curtains and into the space where I was supposed to meet Matt Preston, one of the MasterChef Australia jury members who happened to be my co-panellist in an upcoming session. Looking around, I noticed the enigmatic Preston sitting at a distance, his face half lit by soft light, familiar expression on, and his signature scarf around his neck. Over his masala chai and my espresso doppio we got down to talking about food. Having published his memoir Big Mouth recently, Preston was more than buoyant. To add to that he was in a part of the world that he loves — South Asia, India, Middle East, East Asia — and there was much to talk about. Cue the questions, including where Preston's journey really began. 'Literally from my grandfather's greenhouse to pick tomatoes in the low golden rays of the end to a summer's warm day. The hempy herbaceousness that filled the glasshouse and the warmth of the plump flank that had been basking in the sun for the afternoon. It was, however, a World Cup Willy nougat bar that I saved four weeks of pocket money to buy [that made an impression]; I can vividly remember standing on the top step of the local corner store holding the bar to the sky like I'd just drawn Excalibur from the stone. It actually wasn't very nice when I tried it — it was dry and teeth-pullingly chewy. The tomato was way better.' Preston's career in food was cemented with his move to Australia, 'It was a Cinderella moment, a friend suggested to her partner (who needed a restaurant writer for her new magazine) that I might fit the bill. I'd been writing about TV (specially about Australian soap operas like Neighbours and Home & Away for UK magazines) since arriving in Australia and so getting paid to eat out seemed as good a lurk (just like getting paid to watch TV).' Australia was perhaps his lucky charm for MasterChef Australia, world's OG food reality show, would happen soon. 'I was rung by the daughter in law of my mum's best friend in Australia — they had been kindergarten teachers together in London back in their 20s. She wanted to pick my brains about chefs to audition for the two judging roles on MasterChef Australia. I must have impressed her with my knowledge because she asked to see a picture and the story goes as we were talking she sent it to the launch producer, who sent it to EP (the executive producer) who sent it to the head of the network. They all loved my rather shabby chic appearance and the rag around my neck. Without asking for a CV or any reference or a list of the awards I'd won, they decided to create a third judging role just for me. I know this story to be true because that casting agent ended up being my manager — still is after 15 years.' Eleven seasons later, Preston, George Calombaris, and Gary Mehigan have transformed the way the world looks at food and are responsible for more people wanting to cook. MasterChef Australia made cooking an oomphy affair, beautiful, hard and gratifying all at once. But did the show transform Preston's idea of food, as he went on from being a 'third' judge to one of the best and most popular television jurors? I notice a glitter in Preston's eyes. 'It was to live in a wonderland where any food nerdery wasn't just encouraged but cherished. We'd be talking with each other, the MC team and the contestants 12 hours a day about food, helping crystallise ideas. I learnt a lot from all these follow travellers.' Preston's presence at the JLF had already caused a flurry; autograph and selfie hunters swarmed him. From a Rajasthani grandmom who came all the way to meet the OG master chef to aspiring Gen Zs who wanted a moment with Preston often declaring how the man in a pink neck scarf had changed their lives, the fans were varied. That Preston along with his mates Calombaris, and Mehigan influenced millions is perhaps one of the biggest feats in television history ever. 'We were just three chubby fellas who hardly fill the chisel-jawed model looks of most people who end up on TV. We were making a show in an old chicken shed out by the airport. We had no sense of any impact we might be creating. It is however lovely now to meet people who enjoyed the show and took inspiration from it — in fact, it's actually a little humbling, charming but humbling. We all love how the positivity of the show shone through we all abhor that ugly style of reality TV,' he said. One is curious to know Preston the author and those little-big elements of his life, like his grandfather's greenhouse. I ask about Big Mouth... wasn't it a bit early in life to write a memoir? Pat came the reply, 'I needed to tell my kids all about the personal family stuff that was also part of their story too. That seemed like the easiest way to do it. Preston also wanted to raise awareness about sudden death in epilepsy (SUDEP). 'This is what killed my brother when he was 22. It's still such a little-known problem, but risks can be dramatically reduced with the right advice. If I can help to raise understanding of this (especially with those who advise people with epilepsy, or PWE), help chase more research funding, and help PWE to adopt practices that can lessen risk a little that would be a worthy use of my time,' he added. But which Preston do the readers find in Big Mouth — the judge, the food critic, the columnist, or a man whose world is food? In a little mischief-filled voice came the words: 'The stuff you know about me, the stuff you think you know about me, and the other 80 per cent of the book is stuff you never knew about me. I'd never really addressed it before.' A conversation with Preston cannot conclude without a chat about favourite cuisines. 'Cuisines are like children — I love them all but at different times I like some more than the others. At home, I make pasta, pizzas, one-dish salads that work as a main course, and now that it is getting chilly, simple flavourful braises. I have a soft spot for Indian and Vietnamese. The clean, fresh and sparklingly bright nature of some Japanese food too, and Italian obviously, but really Australian cuisine ransacks all the best kitchens for inspiration, so pair that with my constant travel and I am well fed! Having said that if you can't find something to love everywhere, you just aren't looking hard enough.' That said, does he have a Middle East food connection? 'In Melbourne we have a deep love for food from across the Middle East and my pantry is full of locally sourced molasses, scented waters, and spices like sumac, cinnamon, and saffron. Iconic chef Greg Malouf (and all his skilled acolytes) came from here so we had loads of good local exponents too. Dubai is so much more than jami, madroob and Mandi chicken (still one of the best three ways to cook chicken). Taste of Dubai was immensely enjoyable as much for the inspirational young cooks I got to work with as for the excellent food that I ate across Dubai. Orfali Bros was world class, the fish at BordoMavi (and the service with a lovely familiar Aussie twang!) and the nyama choma at Hashimi BBQ were both most notable. Jun's was a lot of fun too. And I really loved the whole madness of Davib Munoz' Street XO which has just opened. Hanging out with Vineet Bhatia after 20 years was a special treat. Would like to come back and dig a little deeper into Middle Eastern dishes as I know how rewarding this can be after the time spent in Dubai filming MasterChef Australia and what I learnt from local chef and cooks.' Before we part, I asked Preston what's next for him. He said: 'I am dedicating more time towards my interest in attacking food insecurity, by minimising food waste. Shockingly for such a rich country, Australia has a growing problem with food insecurity but last year the charity that I have worked with for 12 years, Second Bite, rescued over 35m kg of fresh nutritious food going to a landfill and re-directed it to NGOs and charities that need it to feed people" 'Shockingly for such a rich country, Australia has a growing problem with food insecurity but last year the charity that I have worked with for 12 years, Second Bite, rescued over 35m kg of fresh nutritious food going to a landfill and re-directed it to NGOs and charities that need it to feed people. 'Then there's my weekly food column that after 15 years has been expanded to run across another 15 Aussie newspapers. I am also travelling to research food tours to key world destinations for fellow food lovers and then leading these tours; Gary and I are in India with a group in March. We (Gary, George, and I) are doing a rolling series of dinners with our friends at Conosh.' While it seems like a lot, perhaps for Matt Preston, from MasterChef Australia, the author, and the critic, it's all in a day's work.
