After Hrs Correspondentafterhoursjpr@dnaindia.net

With their powerful lyricsand even more powerfulmusic, Junoon defined the

genre Sufi rock in the 1990s. Today,they are called the U2 of Pakistan.Their music created ripples even inIndia with their 1997 hit Sayonee,and later with Paap’s Garaj baras.After 19 albums, the band certainlyseems to have carved a niche in theworld of music. Lead guitaristSalman traces Junoon’s musicaljourney with After Hrs.

It’s been more than 20 yearssince the band was formed.Many members have come andleft, but you remain here. Whatmade you stay for so long? I know that it’s been more than 20years. But it feels like it all startedthis morning. It feels like Sayoneecame out yesterday. 20years just passed in asnap. My parents gave metwo career choices—doctor and doctor. In Pakistan and India, if onewishes to go against his parents’wishes, it has to be for a really greatreason. Junoon was that reason forme. I did spend five years in the med-ical school just to put a degree inmother’s hand. My mother stillthinks that I will return to medicinesomeday.

You are being called U2 of Pakistan...We sing songs about peace and unity.U2 also often talks of upliftment. Butthere’s a significant difference inour music.

You show interest in politics too.Why?The great poet Ghalib once said thatart is of no use if you don’t expresswhat’s happening around you. Forexample, when I was in medicalschool, I saw people dying in front ofme because they couldn’t get medi-cines on time. It affected me. Music,

spirituality andpolitics—they alljust come in thesame way.

There was a timewhen Junoon facedsevere censorship inPakistan. How didyou feel about that?It was just that both thecountries did their nu-clear tests at the sametime in May 98. I wasasked to express my viewson it by a news channeland I said that thereshould be cultural fu-sion, not a nuclear fu-sion. And, I (Junoon’smusic) was banned!

Tell us about yourbook Rock and RollJihadThe book is about mycross cultural jour-ney and it was re-leased at Jaipur Lit-erature Fest. I was a

teenag-er whenI shiftedto USwithmy

family and thenwent back (toPakistan) tostudy medicine.However, after9/11, I was just not amusician anymore, I became something else.

Why call it Rock and Roll Jihad?Rock and roll means freedom andjihad means struggle. It doesn’tmean bombing a building withan airplane.

You are planning a Bollywoodventure too. The movie is called Rhythm. It is allabout a girl who is lead singer in a college band and dreams of becom-ing a big musician someday. Also,she is crazy about Junoon. So, myrole in the film is to motivate her. Ihave also sung two of the film’ssongs.

15 years after Sayonee…

soundPOINT

the JunoonREMAINS ALIVE

POWER OF FOUR:Front, SalmanAhmad with other Junoonmembers at AAfftteerr HHrrss’’ office

The only thing that has remained unchangedabout Junoon is its founder and lead guitaristSSaallmmaann AAhhmmaadd.. As the band got ready to rockJJaaiippuurr on Saturday night, Salman talked to AAfftteerrHHrrss about his music and what goes into making it

Dalbeer Singh Negi/DNA

A H3Mila Kunis,

actor

UP NEXTJaipur, Sunday, May 6, 2012eeppaappeerr..ddnnaaiinnddiiaa..ccoomm

IN THE PINKAAfftteerr tthhee HHoollooccaauusstt,, iinn RRuussssiiaa yyoouu wweerree nnoott aalllloowweedd ttoo bbee rreelliiggiioouuss.. BBuutt,, mmyy ppaarreennttss rraaiisseedd mmee ttoo kknnooww II wwaass JJeewwiisshh

Bond movie bosses are staging the biggest ever exhibi-tion of iconic props from the spy films, to mark the 50th

birthday of the franchise in London.The famous exhibits include Goldfinger henchman

Oddjob’s bowler hat, the metal teeth sported by Jaws intwo 1970s Bond films, Scaramanga’s pistol from TheMan With The Golden Gun, 007’s spacesuit from Moon-raker, and tarot cards deck from Live and Let Die.

The flick-knife shoes worn by SPECTRE agentRosa Klebb in From Russia with Love, a waterproof

camera from Thunderball, Halle Berry’s orangebikini from Die Another Day, Bond’s underwaterLotus car from The Spy Who Loved Me, andDaniel Craig’s famous blue swimmingtrunks will also be on display.

The exhibition will even featuresome of Bond’s American Expresscard and his passport, which re-veals he travels under the falsename Arlington Beech. —ANI

An eye for an experimentNewton thought that colour is infused by pressureon the eye. To prove this, in an optical experiment,he stuck a darning needle around the side of his eyeuntil it poked the back of his eye. He calmly notedthat he saw white, dark, and coloured circles whenhe stirred the needle in his eye. Although it is notknown what he concluded from his experiment,Newton argued that light is composed of particles.Science later adopted a wave theory of light andcolour, because of what some experiments found.Newton had some vindication on his theory, though.W ith the discovery of quantum mechanics, light isnow thought to be both a wave and a particle.DI

G THIS

Aparna Sahay, bureaucrat

DD DAYS: On the TV, I thought news was more entertainingthan the serials. Newsreaders Salma Sultan and GeetanjaliAiyaar were my style icons! However, I was a much greaterfan of music. I had a great collection of Boney M, the BeeGees, Paul Anka and Beatles’ LPs. And one last thing that Ireally miss about those days are the morning shows ofEnglish films at Prem Prakash and Gem! That’s where youcould meet the real crème de la crème of Jaipur.

DRESSING UP: Stretch pants and bell bottoms were the in thing. The ultimate style statement, however, were saris.Back then, the Indira Gandhi style saris were quite popular.One other thing that I remember about those days is thatrickshaw drives used to be very stylish (laughs)! Theydressed in half-pants and net shirts and newspapers were full of stories of rick drivers marrying German or French girls!

WHEELS: What girls like us really coveted was a scooter.Lambrettas were for old people, girls wanted the Vespa! Its booking used to stretch over months, so I had to settle foran Allwyn Pushpak. Some of the more adventurous girls atthe university even owned motorbikes.

THE WAY WE ATE: Earlier, outside Suryamahal, they wouldserve seekh kebabs from a live grill. That was the hotspot forparties! And, Natraj was another favourite—I don’t know whyit isn’t doing so well now—we often went there for dahi-wada. Niros was the obvious choice for our non-vegetarianfriends; I personally liked their vegetarian sizzlers.

MALGUDI MOMENTS: Two things: letters and summervacations at our nanihal; nobody sends picture postcardsanymore—I remember, my grandfather had this hooked wireon which he kept all his letters! And my summer vacations...

they were mostly spent at my nani’s village near Aligarh. The fun I

had stealing kathal,mango and litchi fromthe orchards was justpriceless.

—As told to Shivani Sharma

After Hrs Correspondentafterhoursjpr@dnaindia.net

For Chittorgarh nativeUsha Choudhary, mostof her adult life has

been a tough battle againstthe society, including her ownfamily. Her parents had de-cided to marry her off whenshe was 13. Usha had seen thelives of women who weremarried in their childhoodand she didn’t want to sufferlike them. She said no.

“To just go against the de-cision of my family was astruggle in itself. More so, be-cause the society believed theywere doing the right thing.But, I didn’t give up,” sharedUsha said with a triumphantgleam in her eyes.

It took her two years, butUsha managed to not onlybecome a post graduate inHindi Literature, but shealso finally broke offher engagement.Then she startedworking with anNGO called Vikalpin Jodhpur.Now, she fightsfor the rights ofother women andagainst femalefoeticide.Usha isproud toshare thattill dateVikalphasstopped

more than 450 child mar-riages in Rajasthan.

Usha was one of the 20women achievers who werefelicitated for their similarlymeaningful contributions tothe society at an event called,Celebrating being Women.Organised by Preet MandirSansthan, the ceremony washeld at Hotel Ramada onSaturday.

Pushpa Srivastav, PariTilwani and Shipra Bhutaniwere honoured for their workin the field of education,while Saraswati Jain, Nis-hant Husain and ApraKuchchal were awarded fortheir services for the under-privileged.

Apart from felicitations,the event also saw a numberof cultural programmes. Em-inent personalities of the citylike Diya Kumari, state

health minister Raj KumarSharma and mayor Jyoti

Khandelwal attendedthe event.

Talking to AfterHrs, at the end of pro-gram, Diya Kumarinoted, “It was a goodinitiative to acknowl-edge the contribution

of lesser-knownwomen

from thediffer-ent

strata oflife!”

Meet theunsungheroes of RajComing from the different walks of life,each of these women have only thing incommon—their drive to make a difference.On Saturday, they were felicitated by a city organisation

HEAR, HEAR: Diya Kumari (centre) listens as womenachievers from the state share their success stories

Usha Choudhary

buzzzz

Prabha Khaitan Foundation, inassociation with Shruti Mandaland FICCI FLO, will bring togeth-er eminent artists from the city tocommemorate the 150th birth an-niversary of Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore with amelange of cultural performanc-es. To be held at Vidhya Ashramon May 13, the program titled ‘Re-membering Tagore’ will see theseartistes pay a tribute to Gurudev.Among others, Kathak dancerManjiri Kiran Mahajani, Dhrupad vocalist Dr Madhu BhattTailang, singer Manisha Agarwal, writer and poet IkraamRajasthani, sculptor Arjun Prajapati and artist SurendraPal Joshi will mesmerise the audience with their impressiveperformances and art.

—AH Correspondent

COMING UP: CITY’STRIBUTE TO TAGORE

After Hrs Correspondentafterhoursjpr@dnaindia.net

Summer soups are healthi-er cousins of mocktailsand juices and are nearly

as easy to make. They not onlyhave a vibrant burst of flavours,but are also as cool as an iced

drink. In a nutshell, they areperfect for Jaipur summers!After Hrs finds out moreabout them from the city chefs.

Chef Mihir Kiran Mukherjeeof Hotel Country Inn and Suitessays that the concept of coldsoups is ancient. And since the

basicin-

gredi-ents of

theserecipes arefound inabundance,

they weremade in the Eu-

ropean Mediterranean, as well as South American coun-tries.

“The idea behind them is tokeep the body cool and re-freshed,” explains Mukherjee,adding that the ingredients usedfor these soups are perfect to dealwith heat and humidity of aMediterranean climate. Since,the climate in Rajasthan is alsojust as hot, these soups find aplace on our modern menus too.

Moreover, chefs love thesesoups—they are not only a greatway to use the season’s freshbounty, it takes mostly only awhirl in the blender to preparethem. They can even be made inadvance and stored in the refrig-erator.

“They can be either fruitbased or vegetable based,” elab-orates Chef Abhijeet Mukherjeeof hotel Four Point Sheraton.“These soups are always servedraw and uncooked. This is whythey are very healthy.”

For those who are on a heathregime, cold soups make a greatchoice for lunch or dinner appe-tisers.

Apart from their health bene-fits, these soups are quite a treatfor the taste buds too. “They canbe in any combination offlavours that you like,” saysChef Sunil of Hotel Marriott,for example they can be madewith or without sugar or with ahint of lemon.

For those who are keen tomake them at home—ChefNisar Ahmed of Zodiac restau-rant reveals the three big secrets to achieve the chilled per-fection of these soups—BLEND,BLEND and BLEND again tillyou get an elegant smooth tex-ture.

“Soup’s consistency is thickerthan a smoothie, but thinnerthan that of a regular soup,”says Ahmed, adding that youwill need to refrigerate the soupfor at least three hours before itis served. If you are planning toserve it to guests, garnish it withgrounded nuts or freshly-chopped mint leaves.

Have asoup-erb

Think soups are just for winters? Try a chilled bottle gourd and mint soup, or the cold version of Rajasthani makke ki raab, and you might revise your opinion

Chef NisarAhmed ofZodiacrestaurant

Chef Mihir Kiran Mukherjee,Country Inn and Suites

Chilled melon and ginger soupNNoo.. ooff ppoorrttiioonnss:: 44

IInnggrreeddiieennttss:: 4 small cantaloupemelons, 4 spring onions(trimmed), 60ml ginger wine, 15gms fresh dill leaves (chopped),150 ml fresh cream, lime juice, saltand pepper to tasteMMeetthhoodd:: Cut the liver from thebase of each melon so that itstands upright, then cut a slice off of the top. Scoop out and discard the seeds over a sieve,save the juice. Once the flesh isscooped out, keep the melon shells for serving. Now, puree the melon flesh in a blender withthe spring onions, ginger wine, dill and fresh cream and then addenough of the save melon juice to preserve a good consistency.Add little lime juice, chill for anhour before serving.Now, make a cucumber relish. Peeland cut the cucumber into twohalves, scoop out the seeds and

very thinly slice the flesh. Sprinklethe cucumber with salt and setaside for 30 minutes. Wash thecucumber to remove salt and dry it with a kitchen paper. Place the cucumber in a bowl and stir in the remaining ingredients (oliveoil, lime juice, chopped dill leaves,chopped ginger, and extra virginolive oil), season with pepper to taste.Divide the soup between thereserved melon shells and topeach portion with a little of thecucumber relish. Drizzle a littleextra virgin olive oil over it andgarnish it with dill leaves beforeserving.

Chef Nisar Ahmed, Zodiac restaurant

Chilled bottle gourdand mint soupPPoorrttiioonnss:: 22IInnggrreeddiieennttss:: 400 gms bottle gourd,20gms chopped garlic, 30gmschopped onion, Salt to taste, 2gm white pepper powder, 30gms mint leaves, 70ml freshcream, 50ml olive oil, 20gmsbread croutonsMMeetthhoodd:: Peel the bottle gourd,remove seeds and cut it into

cubes. Boil the bottle gourd inwater, add salt, white pepper pow-der and when its tender remove itfrom heat and strain. Sautéchopped onion and garlic in oliveoil till it turns translucent. Nowmix the boiled bottle gourd,sautéed onions and garlic in ablender till it is of a paste consis-tency. Add cream, mint leavespaste, and oil olive to the bottlegourd mixture and mix properly.Put in a chiller for 15 minutes andserve garnished with croutons.

Chef Abhijeet Mukherjee,Four point Sheraton

Bing cherry soupIInnggrreeddiieennttss:: 12 dark and sweetcherries pitted, 500gms vanilla icecream, 500ml Amul creamfresh, 500m fresh milk, and 1tbsp cherry liqueurPPrroocceedduurree:: Combine all ingredi-ents together and blend with stickblender. Serve in chilled soupcups and garnish withwhipped cream!

Soups tothe rescue

life in the retro

buzzzz

BEST OF 007’S TOYS GO ON DISPLAY

Dalbeer Singh Negi/DNA