Your cover story on Karan Johar was interesting as he is winning laurels (‘The empire’, January 21).
Johar has come up the hard way. Let me congratulate Johar on completing 25 years in Bollywood. Also, he is open about being gay, and that must be applauded.
I was not aware that Johar topped the state in commerce and got into a leading management school. He has constantly reinvented himself, and that is why he excels even today. Every actor in Bollywood wants to be in Johar’s good books. That also shows his clout.
Tapesh Nagpal,
On email.
It is not correct to accuse Karan Johar of nepotism. He has introduced many newcomers to the Hindi film industry, although they did not have any film background, like Sidharth Malhotra. Johar is like what Yash Chopra was in the 1970s, 1980s and even 1990s. I now want Johar to make Tamil, Telugu and Malayalam films.
Vyom Prakash,
On email.
Your cover story on Johar was really interesting. Johar has put in a lot of effort to reach where he is today. It was not a cakewalk for him. Johar is today one of the most sought-after persons in Bollywood. His understanding of the Indian cinema audience is matchless, and he is articulate and fearless. I hope he makes films with the same energy for another 25 years.
Vikas Asthana,
On email.
My granddaughter loves THE WEEK
I am a 61-year-old grandmother from Vadodara, Gujarat, and a subscriber of your magazine. We are five adults in the family: besides me, there is my 37-year-old daughter, 34-year-old son, 34-year-old daughter-in-law and 90-year-old mother.
But this is about, possibly, your youngest reader ever—my 17-month-old granddaughter, Amaya! She is surrounded by, us, bibliophiles. Most of her ‘toys’ are books. As soon as she was old enough to sit on her own and play, she has appreciated books. Even before she started to speak clearly, she started demanding to flip through THE WEEK with one of us.
Over the last six months, she has not only gone through every issue more thoroughly than us, but also remembers ‘what was in which issue’ more than us! To give you examples—you have been carrying ads of the Jaipur LitFest. Most of the ads are right at the start of the issue. But, in one particular issue, it was towards the end. Amaya likes to see the peacocks in the ad. So, when she had the issue in front of her, and said, “Peacock,” I turned a few pages, and a few more pages. But when the ad still didn’t appear, I told her may be it is not there in this “magjeen” (that is how she pronounces magazine). “Aahey,” (It is there), she said grandly and made us keep turning the pages. And, yes, it was there towards the end!
Recently, you carried a story about the BSF, which had three photos with camels. Although the cover page of that issue has got torn, as with many other issues, she remembers which one has the camels in it!
Amaya can recognise the photos of most of your regular columnists. She knows R. Prasannan, Shobhaa De, Anita Pratap, Mani Shankar Aiyar, Amitabh Kant, Barkha Dutt and a few others.
She loves the pictures in the glamour section. She has gone through the issues so many times that now she can recognise Jimmy Kimmel, Michael Douglas, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Shekhar Kapur, Ananya Panday, Aditya Roy Kapur, Preity Zinta, Madhuri Dixit Nene, Suriya, Shakira, Taylor Swift, Khushi Kapoor, Vidya Balan and several others.
Of politicians and serious people, one of her first favourites was “[V.K.] Pandian uncle”! It was during that issue that she started to speak a bit more. She wanted to gaze at Pandian uncle’s picture all her waking hours! She recognises Rahul Gandhi, Palanivel Thiaga Rajan, K. Chandrashekar Rao, Rama Rao, Mahua Moitra, Meenakshi Lekhi.
The issue with Roger Binny’s full-page photo was her favourite for quite some time until it got torn recently. ‘Binny babu’—the photo of baby Stuart Binny walking with his parents is still floating around and she demands it off and on. We dare not throw it away, although it is tattered!
Even with so many issues of THE WEEK having been consigned to her toy space, she demands a new issue as soon as it is delivered. We now hide a new issue until I have read it and I am ready to give it to her. The other day, she was cranky and throwing a tantrum for no particular reason. I had just finished with your issue on Ram Temple in Ayodhya. So I called her and said, “Amaya! See what I have for you!” And I held the issue up for her to see. The glint in her eyes was to be seen to be believed! She had recognised that it was an unread issue!
I am happy that I have subscribed to THE WEEK. As soon as Amaya is old enough to understand, I plan to start reading it out to her. Until she reads on her own. I will be happy to see her grow up reading THE WEEK.
Sunita Mishra,
On email.