In Conversation With Zarina Mehta

"My favourite thing in the world is to sit on a beach (preferably Goa), sip a cup of tea and read a good book. I've read and re-read some of my favourite books doing precisely this!

I make it a point to read on all holidays, or in planes while travelling. Also, Sunday afternoons after a good dhansak lunch (or dimsum at Royal China) my husband Ronnie works on his computer, I sit by my balcony; which looks out on some beautiful trees, with my dog near my feet (snoring away), drink hot tea and catch up on a good book. My idea of happiness!

I probably have over 500-600 books or maybe more. I buy at least 2-3 books a week and read them. In fact, many of them are still lying at my parents' house as there is no space for them in my home! Noone really knows what books I like or buy, since I don't ever lend my books nor do I borrow them. If I'm attached to any objects in this world - it's my books! I can't stand it when people fold the page of their books to serve as a bookmark. It sort of drives me crazy!

My fetish and love for the printed word started when I was eight. Till then I was in the US and studied in an American public school. And when I came to India, many of my relatives sort of found it funny that I couldn't even read or write. To make up for the lost time, I took to reading with a vengeance. Now, I am a self-confessed bookworm."

My favourite books

" I keep away from books on the television industry since that is something that we deal with on a regular basis. My all-time favourite is Tolkein's, Lord of the Rings Trilogy; which I first read when I was 15. And recently I re-read it for the 9th time! It reminds me of the classic Don Quixote story? where a single, ordinary person fights against all odds to rise above the rest. And by far, the outcome is not important as Lord Krishna says in the Bhagwad Geeta. The fact that someone chooses to sacrifice themselves to fight for what is right is the key to this story.

It is, in fact this story which influences me in everything I do. A single person can make the biggest difference. So I believe it's important to try regardless of the consequences. If you succeed, it's wonderful and if you fail, that's alright too - at least you tried. You learnt something. This is why we all are here.

Some other books which I've enjoyed reading are Milan Kundera's - The Unbearable Lightness of Being, Gabriel Garcia Marquez's, Love in the time of Cholera; and more recently Kurban Said's Ali and Nino is another masterpiece. These books explore the various shades of a man-woman relationship.

Some other authors I love are Amy Tan and Chitra Dwarka Banerjee, who have written some beautiful stories about women bonding; about the subtle yet strong relationships hey share.

Vikram Chandra's Love and Longing in Bombay and Rohington Mistry's A Fine Balance, possibly the most exquisitely depressing book ever written. On a totally different track, I love books on Maths and Science and I've read all the Time & Life books from cover to cover! I remember reading another off-beat & fascinating book called The Dancing Wu Li Masters by Gary Zukav which is about the beauty of physics!

Currently, I am reading...

As of now, I am reading Swami Vivekananda's entire work. He is the most brilliant mind I've come across.His thoughts are a great source of knowledge and hope for all of us. I wish practitioners of today's so-called `Hindutva' read his books to understand the true meaning of Hinduism. I think, it's the most beautiful, tolerant and all-encompassing of philosophies. I am also onto another fascinating book by Thomas Friedman called The World is Flat. It clearly tells us that the future belongs to India and China."

It seems like every corporate honcho has been trudging on to that treadmill for decades now.

Exercise has become too monotonous,and boring,and well....who has the time? .Infact it's not far fetched to try and get clued into all the exciting avenues for working out that are jazzing up the calorie shedding circuit today.

Sweating it out has become monotonous, boring and well .....who has all the time anyway? So how about some jiffy exercise for the body and soul? Fitness mantras for the 'new age corporate' has to be as much about calming the mind as shedding those extra kilos.So get clued into the latest avenues on working out and jazz up that calorie shedding circuit today.

Power walking, power yoga, taichi, Pilates, spinning and Reebok core boarding are all just the front runners of a veritable exercise revolution which our executives have been trying there hand at out of their busy schedule.

Adding 'zing' to the fitness training coming to gym for the busy bigs

Versa training -while most regular gyms offer the same thing for cardio-a treadmill, cross trainer or stationery bicycle-versa training gives something different to do almost 365 days a year. Everything from aerobics to kickboxing, medicine ball, Swiss ball, trampoline, aqua aerobics, dandiya aerobics, jazz exercise, hip hop...to keep body challenged.

Zumba -it's very dancey and everyone can follow it and it's great for people at all level of fitness as there's no jumping involved. People are always looking for something different to try out not to get bored.

Bhangra masala DVD of masala workout in India is great as it concentrates on abs and legs and works for the upper body as well it's evident that there's absolutely nothing routine about exercise in India.

Swiss ball a primary benefit of exercising with a Swiss ball as opposed to exercising directly on a hard flat surface is that the body responds to the instability of the ball to remain balanced, engaging many more muscles to do so. Those muscles become stronger over time to keep balance.

Medicine ball also known as an exercise ball, med ball, or fitness ball is a heavy ball, roughly the size of a volleyball or a basketball used for rehabilitation and strength training.

Cardio hoops Hula Hoop is one of the few fitness that primarily targets your middle. With circular trunk movements, it directly works abdominal muscles, hips and waistlines. Gain for both a cardio and strength workout. (One minute of Hula Hopping burns as many calories as running an eight-minute mile or high impact aerobic class).

Thera band rotation movements are excellent for warming up the rotator cuff muscles of the shoulder joint.

Tae Bo means tae kwon do and boxing. Or called Total Awareness Excellence Body Obedience.

Krav Maga is a self-defense and military hand-to-hand combat system developed in Israel.

Urban rebounding in just 20 minutes a day, 3 times a week, the Urban Rebounding Workout melts pounds of fat away, without any pain or stress on your joints. Urban Rebounding is also safe. In proper form, your feet barely leave the surface. You don't jump high, you jump strong.

A Man of few words Ranjith Rajasekharan, Vice President - Marketing, Neo Sports Broadcast has a very simple world view, he reveals in conversation with Nidhi Jain.

Reel love?
I read books and watch movies to keep myself updated and refreshened. SawLast King of Scotland, which I'd heard got nominated for the Oscars, and saw Blood Diamond. If you observe there is lot of drama in the sport itself.

Rhythm Divine?
When it comes to music I like anything I lay my hands on. I really enjoyed going to the Roger Waters concert and I am looking forward to watch Shakira live in action.

Hmmmm?
Survival is easy as I can cook chicken curry really well. But I like to check out new things that are in flavor, different cuisine. One of the favorite pastimes is to try new restaurants.

I like chicken tikka masala at Leopold at Colaba, I love pasta at Churchill, Colaba. Also Thai Pavilion for Thai food.

Fit-o-meter...
My wife Sheetal, ex- advertising person insists that I do Yoga. It is more effective than it was 5 years ago. Silently Yoga worked on me and made me feel healthy.

A cautious traveler...
I am a very conservative traveler. I get paranoid if I do not plan my holidays but my wife, Sheetal is the opposite, and she can just backpack with limited money and travel. I am more into luxury holidays. Kerala and Goa remain my favorite holiday destinations.

Sports feature reader...
When it comes to reading it's only about keeping up to date with sports. While holding on to a newspaper, my reading starts with the sports page sections only.

Agenda?

Now I am looking forward to go to World Cup and see my favorite player Rahul Dravid and the other Blue Billion boys in action.

As we grow, we learn and observe and realize how things change, people change. Sajjad Chunawala, Station head, Fever 104 fm, tells Nidhi Jain what he thinks about the Almighty.

By birth
I am a Sunni Muslim.I do not believe God as a universal creator, I do not believe him as a supreme being but I believe that God is Conscience. It's a fundamental for me - if we do something wrong, and something inside tells that we indeed did something incorrect or unethical, then that means you believe in God, and if we do something wrong without having a guilt pang then there is no belief that exists.

My wife is British and Jewish. I got married in three different ways - British wedding, court wedding and a nikaah. Many people told me to change my wife's name. I just do not believe in that at all. She was happy to have nikkah but we both feel that religion and God is a very personal thing, one should not impose it on others.

I believe God is conscience. If you hurt people personally or professionally and you think you can get away with it internally then the belief in a Supreme being does not exist. I can detect people who lie.

Religion
I pray once a week mostly on Fridays. Its an auspicious day for our religion. Sometimes I skip because of time constraints but I do it for internal peace. There are people who use their religion to support violence; I guess this is the norm for every religion. Islam does not justify violence. Muslims are a very peace-loving people.

Religion enables us to ignore nothingness and get on with the job of life. -- John Updike

Values
Values are simple, as life in itself is very simple. We complicate it ourselves. I like to approach my personal life and my professionally life rationally. I have this "no bullshitting" poster in my office. I first try to understand the core problem. If you do not back what you stand for then it's not a worthwhile value system. When I joined my company, at the inaugural session what I said was that I cannot tolerate politics or back biting. I want to have a non-political environment around me.

Belief
I only believe in people, their ideas, giving them enough responsibility, trust, authority to delegate well. I have risen up the ladder the hard way and I realize that we cannot do anything on our own. It is not possible. We have to be peoples' person.

No religion is a true religion that does not make men tingle to their finger tips with a sense of infinite hazard.--William Ernest Hocking

Rituals
Nothing in particular but I go to the mosque, love the food during Ramzaan, play Holi, cerebrate Diwali and also celebrate the Jewish festivals. They all are not rituals but celebrations.

Spiritual guidance
Very internal and very personal, I strongly believe in conscience.

Religion is regarded by the common people as true, by the wise as false, and by the rulers as useful.--Seneca the Younger

Positive thinking
Always. There will always be problems, there will be things that will go wrong, there will be bad days, good days...We should learn to fix problems by not overreacting or losing our heads.

Relaxing spiritually
For me it is basically calming the mind. I have done vipassana. We have to give a perspective to life.

Are you Destiny's child?
I believe life is what we make it.
If triangles had a God, He'd have three sides.--Yiddish

I begin my day with
These days, I start pretty early, that is, around 5.30 am. Getting my son ready for school is my responsibility. Once I send him to school, I steal an hour for a short nap. After the nap, I am off for a walk or a quick session of aerobics. I really don't have the time to visit the gym. Then I quickly get dressed and rush for office. Getting to office takes me around 40 minutes, and during that time I make and receive calls.

My diet regime
I believe, `your first meal should be the heaviest and last one the lightest.' So, I usually start with a wholesome breakfast which is lots of fruits or fresh juice. Sometimes it's an omlette or corn flakes and ginger tea. Lunch is all about just gobbling up something unless I have a lunch meeting when I end up eating more. My dinner is extremely light. I've just developed a sweet tooth, and I love to gorge on rasmalai, rasogullas and ice creams whenever possible.
I don't have very strong likes or dislikes as far as food goes, but when I dine out it's mostly Chinese, Continental and Indian in that order. I love to dine out at the Chinese Room, Sampan and Swati Snacks in Mumbai.

Shopping
Quite often, my better half and I go out on shopping sprees. I am more into shopping than my wife and love to buy a variety of gadgets and clothes but I must admit that I am a pacca marwari and am not very brand conscious. Despite this, I do end up buying more stuff than I really need in life.
I am very fond of watches. They should be functional, sturdy and smart. I have a Swatch, a Titan Edge, a Cartier and a 'Starcom' dial. I am very particular about my shoes and normally get them custom made especially from Jaipur which is my hometown.

I am a travel freak
I love travelling. I prefer train travel as compared to air travel. More than globetrotting, I love to discover and rediscover the mystique of India. Our country is really a miniglobe and there are fabulous places to visit here. I have seen most of the places in the southern and the northern part of the country. I am about to finish exploring the western region and yet to venture out to the far eastern parts of the country.

My best holiday ever has been three years after my marriage; when the entire extended family went driving in a Sumo for an eight -day trip to Nainital, Ranikhet and Almora. It was an awesome journey because it was largely unplanned.
Apart from this, my work often takes me to various places like - US, Australia, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Pakistan and other South East Asian countries. So, I often take some extra days off to explore tourist places.

My relaxing mantra

My professional life really keeps me busy all the time. There was a time when I used to think weekends are an interruption to work. But, I am much saner now! My family is a real stress buster for me. After my work, I love to go home and play with my two month old baby boy, and of course my elder son. I make it a point to travel at least twice a year with my family and look forward to the vacations.

Gadgets & Gizmos
I am not really a gizmo freak, but I am gizmo friendly. I don't like changing mobiles very often. I own a Panasonic D50 DVD camcoder, a Palm Treo 650, IPOD Photo and a Sony Cybershot.

Favourite Car
I love cars and I dream of cars. In fact, I love anything on four wheels even if it means driving a truck. I love to go for test drives and try out different types of cars. Currently, I drive the Accent GLS and my dream is to possess a Bimmer some day.

On Books
I don't spend too much on books; though my wife who's working with an insurance company does love to buy books. More than reading, I believe that I have learnt more from life. I like John Grisham and have read almost everything he's written till date. I have loved his Runaway Jury and The Broker.

I have a fetish for movies
I am a movie buff. I personally prefer Bollywood flicks as compared to Hollywood. I think our films are richer in texture and canvas, while Hollywood movies spend more money on technology. Having said that, I think Bollywood films are real paisa vasool.
Amongst the recent films, I quite liked Black, Parineeta, Dus, My Wife's Murder and , Bunty aur Babli. I 've yet to see Iqbal.

Some things I wish to do
I think, if this industry was to sack me, I would have a lot of alternate professions. I would love to be a chauffeur, as I love cars. I love kids and can open a day care center one day. I think given my fetish for Bollywood flicks, I can even be a movie critic someday. I often find that the ratings, specific comments on direction, acting, screenplay and story given by me are almost similar to the ones given by some movie critics. I would, love to act in plays. I know, it requires time and training but one day, I am going to find the time for it.

There's a great hustle bustle of activity at the Sony office while it's raining cats and dogs outside. It looks like it's been a day of hectic meetings, creative brainstorming sessions for Tarun Katial, Business Head Sony. As I enter his cabin, his cell phone keeps beeping incessantly; as Katial is busying sending off that `one last mail for the day.'

Yet, there's not a hint of being stressed out at the end of the day; in fact he looks pretty calm, composed and totally in charge of himself.

"Television is as stressful as any other profession really," he declares nonchalantly. "And what keeps me through the day is that I take a very detached attitude towards life in general."

That perhaps sets the whole tone of the conversation, as we settle down for a tete-e-tete. And during the course of the conversation Katial reveals a rather spiritual side to his personality.

He reveals, "I did a course in Vipassana, an ancient form of meditation a few years ago which sort of transformed my life in very many ways. Now, I not only practice it everyday but recommend it to many people within the television industry."

For those uninitiated, Vipassana is an ancient technique of meditation and helps in self transformation through self observation.

Though slightly reluctant to talk further, but after much convincing he expounds his spiritual journey which began when his chips were down.

So, here goes Tarun Katial on Life, Success and Karma.

Vipassana filled a certain vacuum in my life.

It was about two years ago, that Katial discovered his moment of truth He says, " I got into Vipassana a few years ago when I was actually unemployed, so-to-speak or lets say in-between jobs (read between Star & Sony). That was a pretty depressing period of my life which lasted for about five months. I felt totally out of touch with the world and did not meet too many people. There was a certain vacuum in my life. It's like suddenly I realized that without a job or a position you're a nobody.

"But then, it's like life always offers you an opportunity. I used the vacuum as an opportunity to do something new and get on with life. One of my family members actually recommended the course in Igatpuri to me. It sounded like a good retreat from the regular mundane life and I started to get the things I decided to go for it. What I learned from the course, has sort of stayed with me forever.

For those uninitiated, Vipassana is one of India's most ancient techniques of meditation. It was rediscovered by Gautam Buddha more than 2500 years ago and was taught by him as a universal remedy for universal ill. Vipassana is a way of self-transformation through self-observation.

Recalling the experience

Having decided to take the plunge, Katial was off to Igatpuri, all equipped with the basic stuff ( a torch, an umbrella a bed etc) to take on a ten day hibernation.

"There are many who shirk from doing this course since it demands a very high level of discipline. But since it promised inner peace I was all prepared for it. We had to be up early in the morning and meditate for the major part of the day. Another important thing being that one is not allowed to communicate to people around.
It's during the silence is when I began the process of self-evaluation -to differentiate between the good-bad and the ugly. I sort of felt my life going past me from mychildhood. Normally, the wrong things that we do in life are pushed under the carpet but it does manifest in the form of prejudices at a later stage in life. Now my working day begins mostly with Vipassana.

I religiously practice this form of meditation each working day. It sort of sets the tone for the day and leaves me rejuvenated for the day. I've now learned to take life at its face value and leave out the insignificant things in life.

My success is the result of my good karma

I am honestly not too ambitious but just a product of being at the right time and place. Also, I believe my success is really the result of my good karma. I am not really scared of the future or losing it all, since nothing is really permanent in life. It's like a sensation that you feel which will go away after a point of time. I never get too excited with success or get too depressed with failure. So, this attitude sort of keeps me rooted.

On climbing up the corporate ladder

When I ask him but don't you want to be the CEO of a company one day. He says, "no, not really. I would rather retire early and do something like teach at a media school or run an NGO.

I don't claim to read Jack Welsh

I don't claim to read great books. Forget Jack Welsh or any such author. I just stick to simple inspirational books on Buddhism, like the one I am reading now is called, ` The way it is by Ajahn Sumdha and there's another one by Swami Chimayananda - on the Art of living.