Sania Mirza, Tennis player
Favourite song/piece of music for this year?
Kamlee ho gayiaan from Happy New Year because it’s really peppy, catchy and full of energy; it brings back the smile to my face.
Best read in 2014?
I like reading autobiographies. I was recently reading Mike Tyson’s, which showed what an amazing champion he was and the background he came from.
Favourite film from this year?
Interstellar . It’s the best time travel movie and Nolan is an amazing director. Also, The Fault in Our Stars — it’s an amazing and a touching movie.
Happiest moment of this year?
Winning a Grand Slam title at the US Open, runners up at Australian Open, WTA titles in Portugal and Japan apart from four runners-up trophies in Indian Wells, Stuttgart, Montreal and Beijing have made it a phenomenal year for me. But to finish off with a gold medal and a bronze at the Asian Games in Incheon (South Korea) and to be crowned World Champions in the year-end Championships at Singapore is the kind of stuff, dreams are made of and I consider myself very fortunate!
Biggest disappointment?
I believe whatever happens, happens for good and we learn from it. I have no disappointments.
Biggest discovery — personal or otherwise?
The realisation that India has so many enthusiastic tennis fans thanks to IPTL.
What are you looking forward to most in 2015?
To a healthy and prosperous year and an even better performance then this year.
How do you plan to bring in the New Year?
With my friends and family in Bangalore.
(V.V. Subrahmanyam)
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Nimrat Kaur, Actor
Favourite song/piece of music for this year?
Maahi Ve from Highway . It has a certain haunting quality about it that reminds me of many moments of deep love and loss. Also I can't have enough of Bang Bang (the title track), its energy and arrangement is infectious and so electric.
Best read in 2014?
A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry. I had heard about this one forever and finally ticked it off my check list; I only regret not having read it earlier. The delicacy of the human relationships essayed in it and the unlikelihood of events with all that happened in the emergency have been magical to absorb.
Favourite film from this year?
Without an exception, it has to be Interstellar . I have seen it twice and may see it two more times. It seems to bridge all that lies between science and spirituality that I’ve personally always been fascinated with. It’s not a film for me, but a philosophy.
Happiest moment of this year?
To dance to Lovefool by The Cardigans, completely inebriated with Claire Danes on Halloweeen night. It’s a song from Romeo + Juliet, a film she starred in that I was obssessed with. I know the lyrics of the song since I was in school. Crazy fan moment there, who knew?
Biggest disappointment?
To not be scared in the least when I went shark cage diving in the Atlantic. I was expecting to be petrified, but found myself close to petting the shark.
Biggest discovery — personal or otherwise?
That sharks are very cute and that the Southern Right Whales love showing off. Meanwhile, rolling down a hill filled with knee deep snow, again and again, is not a good idea.
What are you looking forward to most in 2015 ?
My best friend’s wedding.
How do you plan to bring in the New Year?
Hopefully out of Mumbai, with some friends. I’ve also decided to secretly maintain a journal so that I can give better answers for such questions, for end of next year.
(Sudhish Kamath)
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Raghu Dixit, Musician
Favourite song/piece of music for this year?
A Rajasthani folk song called Nin berli that I heard in the foyer of a hotel in Glasgow. I ran towards the sound thinking it was a live dance performance, only to find that it was the CD of Gypsies of Rajasthan album; I’ve had it on loop since then.
Best read in 2014?
A book called The Art of Thinking Clearly , which taught me that every thought process of the human mind is biased. That means that we never see things as they actually are. And at 40 years, I think it’s about time I understood the world for what it is.
Favourite film from this year?
Haider by Vishal Baradwaj. I’m in love with his poetry in motion. The way he blends music with cinematography and human emotions — he’s a complete filmmaker. I love his craft.
Happiest moment of this year?
At a concert on Ganesh Utsav this year in Bangalore where we performed at 11 a.m. to a crowd of 11,000 people singing with us loudly that at one point I had to shut my mouth and let them take over for the entire song. It was so overwhelming.
Biggest disappointment?
That this year is over and I’m only getting older with each passing day.
Biggest discovery — personal or otherwise?
It’s also my biggest disappointment actually, that at 40, there are still two things I can’t do: drive and swim.
What are you looking forward to most in 2015?
Spending more time with my wife at home; it has been difficult when I’m on tour so much.
How do you plan to bring in the New Year?
My wife and I are travelling to Istanbul on vacation, so it’ll be a freezing New Year’s Eve party.
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Bose Krishnamachari, Artist
Favourite song/piece of music for this year?
Anything by Shahabaz Aman. . An incredible musician who understands our time, our history and our politics, he’s a genius in everything he does.
Best read in 2014?
A slim book of pencil sketches, from literature, music, cinema and art by artist Manoj Nair.
Favourite film from this year?
Rajeev Ravi’s Njan Steve Lopez for the excellent cinematography and for depicting a side of Kerala that one doesn’t usually see.
Happiest moment of this year?
As President of Kochi Biennale Foundation, the opening of the Kochi Muziris Biennale on December 12. It was the coming true of so many people’s dreams. And this year is special because, only when the second edition of a biennale happens does it actually become a biennale. It was a proud moment for the Indian art world.
Biggest disappointment?
That our policy makers still haven’t recognised the gold mine that the Biennale is, and that they should invest in it.
Biggest discovery — personal or otherwise?
The Students Biennale, put together by 15 young curators, featuring art by students of government-run art colleges across the country. I was amazed by the kind of talent here.
What are you looking forward to most in 2015?
We have lots of dreams for the Foundation and our biggest one is to have a property that functions as a cultural university of sorts, which will celebrate our soft powers. Kochi has the potential to host such a space and this is a dream we hope will come true soon.
How do you plan to bring in the New Year?
It’s an incredible feeling to watch people from every walk of life step into the Biennale site and I’ll be doing that for the next three months. Each moment here is celestial and I cherish it. Every day feels like New Year’s Eve!
William Dalrymple
Favourite song/piece of music for this year?
The collaborative album between Transglobal Underground and Fanfara Tirana — it’s musical genius. They will be performing at the Jaipur Lit Fest this January.
Best read in 2014?
In non-fiction, The Making of the Middle Sea by Cyprian Broodbank, which is a fascinating account of the struggle between the Neanderthals and Homo sapiens that includes a war between the two, intermarriage and much more. It’s a subject and a period of time that’s tough to make interesting but it’s grippingly told. In fiction, Deepti Kapoor’s brilliant debut A Bad Character , a sensual violent love story set in Delhi, that’s like a fictional counterpart of Rana Dasgupta’s Capital .
Favourite film from this year?
An Indonesian documentary called The Act of Killing about the mass executions of communists. Favourite feature film would be a tie between Sean Ellis’ Metro Manila and Sin Nombre , directed by Cary Fukunaga who has also directed the television series True Detective which I’ve been hooked on to all this year.
Happiest moment of this year?
Professional moment was the completion of the 2014 Jaipur Lit Festival without a controversy for the first time in three years. Personal moment was celebrating my parents’ 60th wedding anniversary in Scotland.
Biggest disappointment?
I’ve been chasing the making of a documentary on Indian art that hasn’t taken off yet.
What are you looking forward to most in 2015?
Right now, just single-mindedly looking forward to the Jaipur Lit Fest 2015 going well. It’s quite a task, actually!
How do you plan to bring in the New Year?
I’m flying to Southern England for the filming of the BBC documentary on White Mughals which will begin shooting on New Year’s Eve. Will fly to Scotland soon after to spend the New Year with family there.
