Mind Fodder

What you will see in the Monsoon Edition of ForbesLife India

Peter Griffin
Updated: Jul 22, 2013 08:35:12 AM UTC
FL-cover-03-02-large-232x300
ForbesLife India, Volume 3, Issue 2 (the monsoon edition)

“The food that to him now is as luscious as locusts, shall be to him shortly as bitter as coloquintida,” wrote the Bard, in Othello. ‘Luscious’ as a descriptor for ‘locusts’? Old William hitting the mead too hard? Not really. It’s only our modern Westernised sensibilities that make us a little queasy at the thought of chomping on insects. Around 1,900 species of insects are regarded as rather traditional fare.

This I discovered thanks to my colleague Sumana Mukherjee, who anchors our cover feature on the future of food. Chefs, she tells us, are experimenting with new ways to make the creepy crawlies less, well, creepy to our palates. And it isn’t just some flavour of the month thing; the world’s population continues to grow, and we’re running out of the resources that have kept us fed thus far. We need to find new sources of food and that means, among other things, looking seriously at the nutrient-rich six-legged creatures. To get a different perspective, Vikram Sheel Kumar, our resident loony doctor, puts on his researcher’s toque blanche to check what is brewing in the labs. And Jasodhara Banerjee rounds it off with an easy-to-digest summary of how food is moving around the world. This three-course offering starts on page 52.

A quick sampling of the rest of the menu? My now-ex-colleague Shishir Prasad, and Shravan Bhatt, our promising young cub, got to hang out with table tennis legend, Peter Karlsson, who was visiting India to help coach young Indian players. Shishir even got to play a game with him, much to the envy of the rest of us TT fans in the office. The story is on page 92. Then Amruta Patil, the very talented graphic novelist, has compiled a selection of must-reads (p 26). And Madhu Kapparath has curated an unusual edition of our Beautiful People section: this time the focus is on the beauty of aspiration for a better life. That’s at the very end of the book. And yes, I had the opportunity to chat with another legend, Rahul Ram, a member of one of my favourite Indian bands, Indian Ocean, which has been rocking concerts all over India and the world for 23 years now; that’s on page 36.

Now, if you’ll pardon me, all this writing has made me very hungry.

Bon appetit!


That was my edit letter from the new issue of ForbesLife India, which should have got to our subscribers a week or so ago, at least. It's also in bookshops, and all the better news-stands across the country, so make sure you grab your copy.

To give you more of a taste of what's in the issue, here's the table of contents, and our Contributors pages. We hope you enjoy the issue and, as ever, look forward to your feedback!

FL-cover-03-02-large-232x300
Table of contents, ForbesLife India, Volume 3, Issue 2 (the monsoon edition)
FL-cover-03-02-large-232x300
Contributors 1, ForbesLife India, Volume 3, Issue 2 (the monsoon edition)
FL-cover-03-02-large-232x300
Contributors 2, ForbesLife India, Volume 3, Issue 2 (the monsoon edition)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The thoughts and opinions shared here are of the author.

Check out our end of season subscription discounts with a Moneycontrol pro subscription absolutely free. Use code EOSO2021. Click here for details.

Post Your Comment
Required
Required, will not be published
All comments are moderated