Beauty & the Beast

Went to listen to Salman Rushdie as he did a Press thing for the movie Midnight's Children. So adore the courage with which he has conducted his life that all I could do was sit there lavishing him with maternal gazes. And am  always amazed at how young he is, in his manner, his interests, his sense of humour. He should sell his joie de vivre in Tom Ford fragrance bottles. 

He is also as articulate in person as he is in his work. He understands the force of a good anecdote, naturally, which simultaneously adds to the movie he is publicising, telling us how he wanted to play the soothsayer in the film but didn't want to shift focus from the scene with theatre-goers pausing to point and say, “Isn't that Salman Rushdie?” Which is exactly what they would have done.

I noticed even the way he signed books was in the deliberate manner all good writers bring to anything that has to do with the written word. 

People are amazing.

In more ways than one. Towards the end, a woman, dressed in what looked like too much curtain material, leaped from her chair and accused director Deepa Mehta of casting only actors she knows. Here I am, the woman said. I act. Please consider me in future. 

Aside: The movie world is a ruthless one. You have to look like Shriya Saran to get a foot in the door; for every hundred Sarans there will be one Edward G Robinson. Beauty or talent must win. Stands to reason. But reason is something a lot of people who live in small towns and think they are Somebody seem to lack. They are not just like people treading water and trying to keep their heads above it. They are like people who have already drowned in the sea of their fruitless ambition and overwhelming lack of redeeming qualities like humility, self-knowledge or perspective. Sometimes, you just can't fight the tide.

She later rushed the stage and thrust her card at the director, who said, and who can blame her, "But how will I know who this card belongs to?"