Director and COO of Graphiti Multimedia, Munjal Shroff tells Nidhi Jain, how a person grows with changing times without changing the basic nature incorporated in the beginning.

By Birth
My belief in GOD has not really changed much, though I have been through tough circumstances, desperate situations. I knew that it was part of learning personally and professionally and knew things would work out.

Values & Belief
I have been fortunate to be born in a family which is culturally very strong. Our family tradition is 120 years old. The customs, traditions I grew up enjoying was a great way of bonding. Belief is a personal choice, though I don't personally don't exercise it and some make it a big issue, values shouldn't change. To a large extent, mine have remained the same. I guess it has a lot to do with upbringing, though there are values which change with personal experiences. Extreme conditions do question our values. I don't have any regrets on the decisions I have made.
Rituals
I believe in Lord Ganesha. Trained by my grandfather, Navin Shroff, I know my customs/rituals better than my father and my father acknowledges that. Our rituals give us identity. We have antique toys, chariots, which I want to and pass on to my kids and I want this tradition to continue forever.

Divine visit
I go to Mahalaxmi temple in Mumbai. My main deity is in a temple in Udaipur.

Spiritual guidance
My grandfather, to an extent, who was always detached from worries, and took life in his stride and is a very calm, composed, spiritual person.

Positive thinking
I believe in light at the end of the tunnel as things have a mysterious ways of coming back to us.

Relaxing spiritually
With wife and kids and also the latter are a huge source of entertainment.

Are you Destiny's child?
It wasn't a smooth ride after having close calls but I know deep down that things will work out.

A complete gadget freak - That is Hiren Gada,Vice President Shemaroo Entertainment Pvt. Ltd for you. His likes life on the fast lane, is how he describes it to Richa Dubey.

I keep myself updated about the gadgets that I use. I read magazines, books and watch TV. I own a mobile, MP3 player and a laptop which I carry wherever I travel for official purposes. I prefer the latest configuration on my laptop. The latest one which I am using has got a screen size of 12 inches and is very small and weighs less. I find it very convenient to carry while traveling. It also has different software and a DVD writer. We are a home DVD company so I have a vast DVD collection ranging from classics to newer ones.

I like watching movies in multiplexes as well as at home. Watching a movie in multiplexes is a family experience. I make it a point to watch movies with the family at least once or twice in two weeks.

Being from the entertainment industry I like to watch movies with leisure therefore I have installed home theater in each and every room. I watch movies a lot. I am a big techno freak when it comes to movies. In my hall I have a mini theatre. There is a Panasonic projector at one end and a large screen at the other, which gives a proper theater feel.

One of it is movable, such that I can watch it while having meals. I have a set top box, a DVD player and amplifier. All of these are attached to the projector and speakers around the room. I use 5 remote controls for them but it pays well. The experience of watching and listening to music in such an environment is amazing. I own all the original DVDs and depending on the mood I watch them.

My collection of movies range from Lawrence of Arabia, Da Vinci Code, Anand etc.

In mobile phones I have kind of stabilized on Nokia 9300 since two years. It is a communicator and I never found any cell as good. This is the one which has everything in one and suits my profession. I have a blackberry installed so I get mail alerts on it when I am not carrying my laptop. Communicator is a holistic device in its own right. But I do keep a track of every new mobile in the market.

While traveling, schedules are tight so I hardly get time to shop or check out for small electronic gadgets but in duty free I do check out the price and new features. I also carry my MP3 player while traveling. It also has a radio in it. I have never bought an Ipod because I feel it is as good as having an MP3 player. If they come out with an Ipod cum radio I will surely buy one. I am looking for different features in an Ipod like video.

"I have just finished reading an old classic: "Confessions of a Thug" by Philips Meadows Taylor. The book was first published in Britain in 1839 to make the Victorian readers aware of the menace of the "Thugee". Essentially, the book is, as the title mentions, confessions of a Thug who had a long career in the business and was finally captured by the British and turned approver.

To those of much younger generations, Thugs were secretive groups of people who under normal circumstances were settlers in a village, purportedly engaged in normal trades and crafts. But during the travel season [in those days that would be after the monsoons and before the onset of summer], Thugs in organized bands took to the roads and highways with the express intention of looting travelers. The modus operandi too was very interesting. They disguised themselves as ordinary travelers and became a part of the convoy they planned to loot, and at an opportune moment in the journey they would strangulate unsuspecting travelers, bury them and move on with the booty. Each band would have specialist informers who would collect information of potential victims and their travel itinerary], specialist killer [who would strangulate the victims with their rumals] and specialist grave diggers [who were responsible or disposing off the bodies of the victims.

Because of the highly secretive nature of their business and connivance of the local rajas and landlords [who shared a part of the booty, this became a "menace" in large swathes of central, south and north India, till the British under Col Sleeman systematically hunted down thugees and gradually put an end to this form of banditry.

Confessions?. is the autobiography of one such Thug leader Amir Ali and covers his active life as a Thugee. It is a fascinating book to read for many reasons. First of all, it is the only such account which exists today in the written form. Secondly, it gives a vivid account of the political and social confusion that prevailed in most parts of India in between 1800 and 1850. And, finally, although a gory account of cold blooded murder and loot [Amir Ali himself is said to have strangulated over 700 people], it is a remarkable account of the syncretic nature of the popular culture of the age. To give just one example, although a devout Muslim, Amir Ali's best friend and confidant was always a Hindu and he and his fellow Muslim thugs never forgot to invoke Goddess Bhawani, who was the presiding deity of the Thugs.

It is a very rich autobiography on two counts: First it captures much more about the flavor of the period than many formal books on that period of Indian history. And secondly, it reflects the deep seated emotions, mental dilemmas, compromises and indeed principles of a man whom more civilized and genteel society would not have credited with such finer human expressions.

"Well, it would be difficult to get hold of a copy. But you can download the whole book from Google. Read it if you are interested in your past and I promise Amir Ali will not let you down".

Sitting in his exquisitely done up plush apartment in Goregaon ( a suburb in Mumbai), dressed comfortably in a grey T shirt and track pants, Aatish Kapadia looks totally calm and composed. I sense a certain aloofness about the man as he tells me, "Actually I've taken a day off from my shooting today to write my next episode for Sarabhai Vs Sarabhai."

After discussing a few nitti gritties the fresh pineapple juice arrives, Kapadia opens up a bit and gets talking about himself, "at times I can be very aloof but then I can also very gregarious with people I know well."

That perhaps sets the whole tone of the conversation, as we settle down for a brief t?te-?-t?te on his life and times. I ask him about his rise from a writer to a successful producer, and he goes "somehow, life hasn't been a struggle but things have just fallen in place for me. I am a product of meeting the right people at the right time. I strongly believe life is a journey and not a race." And this, coming from a producer and the brain behind the immensely successful shows like Khichdi, Sarabhai vs Sarabhai and Ba bahu aur babli. I wait for more, as Kapadia reveals it all about his life and times.

My early days
My family's been into the textiles business for years, but somehow I knew that I could never fit into it. And that's why the surname `Kapadia'. One best thing that I picked up from my father was the habit of reading. And along with reading voraciously I tried my hand at different things in life - acting, writing and theatre.

I started off doing Gujarati theatre and later scripting for Gujarati soaps. Somehow, God has been kind to me and life has not been a struggle but things have just fallen in place for me. I am a product of meeting the right people at the right time. My big break in the Hindi television space happened with Alpaviram. Later, Ek mahal ho sapno ka happened, which I thoroughly enjoyed writing.

I believe, life is not a race, it's a journey cause if it's a race then what do I do when the race ends? I want to walk at my own pace and compete with myself.

I seek inspiration from
I seek inspiration from people I meet on the road, on the sets and when I travel. They could even be complete strangers to me. I try to understand people, their real selves and their three dimensional lives. Life is not about being either completely white or black. So, people are my fodder for thought.

I keep the child in me alive by watching children play. Children are an amazing gift from God, as they enjoy the simple joys of life almost mesmerized by life. It's we adults who put in ideas of competition and racing against time for them.

On the television business
The television business is getting crazier by the day. We are obsessed with glamour, gossip and everyone's trying to fit into the same slot. So, if one guy is creating unnecessary drama and getting TRP's everyone's trying to imitate. As a result, the whole landscape looks the same. I think, success is a relative term and TRP's have to be seen in the right context. Even newspapers are all intellectually crap, full of parties, gossip and weddings. There is nothing intellectually stimulating to read.

On Page 3 parties
I feel totally out of place at parties especially, filmi parties. I try to avoid all parties as far as possible.

Success means
Success is being allowed to do the kind of creative work that I want to. And not having to do what the channel or the audiences want. There are people in the market who think they are successful but I think they have succumbed to pressure.

I am failing every single day.
I experience failure every single day as I try to write and pull off every episode successfully. To fill a blank piece of paper every single day is a great challege. Since, I am not a genius, words don't flow out but I've to work very hard at my craft.

Stress busters
I don't believe in getting stressed. If something is not working out or shaping up as per my wishes - then my attitude, So what? I take it very cool in life. I used to practice Yoga earlier but now I prefer going to the gym. I mix a workout of cardio and weights. I also love traveling because of the hectic schedules. I love traveling and have traveled across the world along with my theatre group.

Cartoon Network Enterprises India and South Asia director Jiggy George's think reading is greatest investment mind. An avid book reader tells Nidhi Jain it would allow writers to make a living and would keep India's smartness quotient in tact.

Who introduced you to reading?
Books are an enduring love. My parents fueled my interest for general knowledge by buying me volumes of the "Tell me why series" and encyclopedias. The idea was to balance/supplement academics and learning by rote. These books along with the Bible were introduced at a very early age. The progression in school saw phases?from the Hardy boys, Alfred Hitchcock adventures to a lot of abridged classics like Tom Sawyer, Huckleberry Fin, Moby Dick, Robinson Crusoe etc. I remember a phase of obsession with Sherlock Holmes and his myriad adventures. I wrote a letter to Baker street asking him as to why he came as close as Nepal and never visited India. I was thrilled to get a letter back explaining as to how he would love to come to India and some mystery soon would see him and Watson there. Though precocious; I did not see this as marketing. This letter made an indelible mark and now working in a job that markets dreams to kids; the letter from Sherlock keeps reminding me of how simple ideas can fuel imagination and bring unbridled joy in a kid's life!
The one person who I believe has molded my life is my maternal uncle. He played cupid to my love for books. Bose uncle introduced me to the world of Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Milan Kundera, Salman Rushdie, and Amitav Ghosh. Though he was struggling to make a living in Mumbai; he ensured that he invest in buying me books every month. It was his investment into me and it changed my world! I started my love affair with books. It got me traveling vicariously to different parts of the world and activated the theatre of my mind.

Kind of book collection you have
I am promiscuous when it comes to books and my collection is eclectic and reflects the obsessions and different phases of my life. From Classics, to travelogues, from humor to contemporary literature, from graphic books, screenplays, comics to biographies. A lot of music related books and of course corporate stuff. I am not very fond of Indian authors except for my complete love and respect for the works of Amitav Ghosh, Vikram Seth and Khushwant Singh.
I love humor and favorites include Kingsley Amis, Dave Barry, Bill Bryson and Douglas Adams.
Comics ?I love and have the complete Tin Tin's, Asterix, Amar Chitra Katha's, Calvin and Hobbes, Gary Larson , Scott Adams (most of them?)and Mad (all of them until 2005)
I recently got gifted a subscription to the Economist by a worthy friend. I love it and this again is now staple diet.

On favorite authors and well written books
This could take very long but?My current favorite is Nick Hornby and this genre of writing would so appeal to the youth of our country. Its not "high art" and pretentious and this genre of writing does not exist in India. "High Fidelity", "A long way down" and "About a boy" are all superb books!

Salinger's Catcher in the Rye, Gabriel Garcia Marquez- love in the time of Cholera, Hundred years of solitude and Chronicles of a death foretold. John Irving's "World according to Garp", " Zorba the greek " byNikos Kazantzakis, Michael Ondaatje's "The English Patient" and Ian McEwan's " Amsterdam", "To kill a mocking bird" by Harper Lee and even Stephen King's "Shawshank redemption"
"The Hitchhiker" series by Douglas Adams, Vikram Seth's complete works from "Golden gate" and "Equal music" to the "Suitable boy" and the wonderful travelogue "From Heaven's lake"

"The Hitchhiker" series by Douglas Adams, Vikram Seth's complete works from "Golden gate" and "Equal music" to the "Suitable boy" and the wonderful travelogue "From Heaven's lake"?

Every corpo type should read Seth's Hare and tortoise in his book "Beastley Tales". It is the signs of our times!

Amitav Ghosh's "Shadow lines", Rushdie are "Shame" and "Haroun and the sea of stories." The classics like "The Great Gatsby "by Scott Fitzgerald, "The Alexandra quartet" by Lawrence Durrell, "Brighton Rock" by Graham Greene, "The adventures of Tom Sawyer" by Dickens and "Don Quixote "by Cervantes.
I also liked "God of small things'?
As for business related books; I am partial to biographies and loved Richard Branson's Steve Job's and J R D Tata's stories.

I love Sidney Lumet's" making movies" and in recent times, Stephen Levitt's Freakanomics, Malcolm Gladwell's Blink and Lexus and the olive tree by Friedman were very interesting.

Do you find interesting things in every book, how do you choose books you read?
Most of my friends read and I trust their judgment of books. Besides, I check amazon.com, reviews of books and by browsing at bookstores. The people I love most have to live with my obsession with books- they get the same predictable gifts (a book again!) and have to live with being forced to read.

What do you think of self help books?
I don't think of them! I know it sells a lot of copies because all of us need help. I could not "awaken the giant within" even after trying to read Anthony Robbin's book a hundred times. I loved the Alchemist (if you put this in genre of self help) and I am an unashamed fan of some of the dummies series of books. I greatly benefited by the dummy's guide to Classical music, wines and yoga. I though Stephen Covey's seven habits was great when I read it n MBA School.

Money and time you spend on books
Money in this case can buy love! I spend too much money and rationalize it each time. In fact, I have been forbidden by the Home minister to buy any more books as it is impairing our social life. Fewer friends come home as there is no place to accommodate them!

Books-an investment
The art scene has got fashionable as its now a currency like the stock exchange. It's now cool to say you collect art. I wish this coolness quotient would translate to books. It would keep our writers and publishing industry in business. It would allow writers to make a living and it would keep India's smartness quotient in tact.
I think reading has been my greatest investment. The returns payout greatly at work as it has helped the process of being lateral, communicating better, dreaming up the road ahead, selling a dream!

Browsing and e-reading
Inspite of the fact that I like technology I have still not got used to the idea of e-reading. I guess I am a tactile person. I need to touch and feel books! I guess this explains my obsession with my job?I set up new businesses with brand Pogo and Cartoon Network- the vision being that kids can touch and feel the brands beyond the realm of TV.

Currently reading
Thunderbolt kid by Bill Bryson, TV Nation by Michael Moore, SRK's biography and my daily dose of comics and magazines.

"Rimbaud stopped writing poetry at nineteen? Jesus was crucified at thirty-three; Jack Kennedy was shot?at forty-six. I am twenty-nine years old. What have I done? What am I capable of doing? Who am I? "This is possibly the best line that describes Sasthi Brata's ulterior turmoil.

Story of a boy, a man and the main protagonist of "My God Died Young". Penned in the late 1960s, this autobiography has been immensely popular and successful, largely due to its unassuming style and youthful angst spoke to a whole generation of those times and perhaps does that even today with ?lan and ease.

In this explicit and irreverent autobiography, Sasthi Brata tells his life story, his increasing sense of alienation from his wealthy and extremely conservative Brahmin family, his traumatic experiences at school where the housemaster's moral lessons almost made a psychological wreck of him, his intense love affair with a girl whose parents married her off to the man of their choice, and his agonized search for roots which took him to England. Alternately tender and brutal, he lays bare the shams of tradition-bound society in India as well as in the West with his no-holds-barred honesty and astonishing insight and understanding. -- It was quite difficult back in those times to have raised issues, with a tinge of disgust, like faith and superstition, logic and science, fatalism and the freedom of choice but when I read this masterpiece in the present times I find it so relevant and I cant help but admire the genius of Shasti Brata. With due apologies to most of the contemporary writers, Shasti Brata and My God Died Young is one in a million example of a writer who doesn't have to pretend to be a writer.

"Thanks to the twin pressures of a Brahmin home and a nonconformist upbringing," Brata notes, "Most of the time I move around in the steel braces of subconscious inhibitions." Most Indians will be conversant with this feeling. Indeed, one of the arguments advanced by Brata's book is the extent to which our adult lives are in thrall to conceptions and attitudes formed in childhood. University at Presidency College in Kolkata, and a love of debating, freed him somewhat of these shackles. He studied science, flirted with fashionable Marxist ideas, believed he was a young genius and prophet, fell in love, agonized about religion, and contemplated his place in the world. Later, unhappy in enclosed, stratified India, he moved west, and decided to pursue a path as a writer. Everywhere he found that obstacles to his dreams lay not just in the conventions of society and the shape of his personal destiny - as some people like to believe - but also in something marshy and tortured in his own nature, even more generally human nature.

Brata's confessional language has a powerfully persuasive air. "I hated my family and since I was a part of them, I hated myself too." "My outward actions were frenzied and daring because the inner man was so tame and ordinary." "Even the most genuine emotion [I felt] was centripetal, tending towards myself in the centre, with the other person as an incidental circumference. I don't believe I had any real feelings. I sometimes wonder if I do now." "I move about in a thick viscous cloud, always looking over my shoulder to see if anyone is watching." "I was the shadow of a shadow. It is always hard to build a life on such foundations."

Some of Brata's phrases - fusty Britishisms, and curious analogies to English examples rather than native ones of the kind one can still find in, say, a professor of English in Kolkata - are a mark of his time and place and his education. The old midwife who delivered him "looked as close to the Witches in Macbeth as Shakespeare could have imagined them to be." How could Brata know how Shakespeare had imagined his witches?
My God Died Young culminates in a beautifully realized scene in which Brata, having returned to India for a visit, is persuaded by his parents to "view" a potential bride. Reluctant but also curious, he submits to all the rituals of the arranged-marriage experience, driving to the would-be bride's home with his parents, listening patiently to her father reeling off a list of her achievements, scrutinizing and being scrutinized by the gathered women of the girl's family. He asks the shy, veiled girl a couple of questions in front of the entire company, and hears her sing a song at his mother's request. Despite his reservations he is impressed with, even entranced by, the girl. At the same time the curious scene in which he is the chief player arouses in him a strange horror and repulsion expressed in these beautiful sentences that simultaneously evoke both a burgeoning, thriving life and a kind of moral blindness:
"The girl sat there like a Goddess. And for a moment I felt that no one but a Goddess could have her forbearance, her beauty, the sweet maddening melody of her voice. Restively, my eyes swung round to her, so calm, so removed, so enchantingly graceful like the swift green curves of spring. Then over the rest of those hard deadening faces, severe and resolute, presiding over the closing cries of an auction mart".

Many of my friends call My God Died Young a pensive, cranky book of a writer being both impatient with the hypocrisy of the world and despairing himself. Brata is always asking the question: "Why do we live in this way and not in any other?" This is why I feel reading someone's autobiography is a responsible job. Someone's upbringing may shake your sensibilities and cause a conflict and a war within thus creating minds that do more damage than any good. A word of caution, if you don't have a strong head on equally strong shoulders - just leave the book alone! "I wrote this book to try and understand myself," Shasti Brata says at the beginning (he was not even thirty when he wrote it), and autobiography, he knows, "demands honesty". This is the way every writer of any times must be able to write about his work and when you read that you know he means it. Frankly, I read it (and continue to do so) because I wanted to understand myself.