Midnight’s Children, the latest film from Academy Award-nominated director Deepa Mehta (known for her Elements trilogy: Fire, Earth, and Water) is set to have it’s U.S. release this week. Based on the Booker Prize-winning novel by Salman Rushdie – who serves as the film’s narrator – the critically acclaimed motion picture will open on April 26 in New York City opening exclusively at the Angelika and Beekman theaters. The film then releases on May 3 in Los Angeles and Washington D.C. followed by many additional cities on May 10. The film also stars Satya Bhabha, Shriya Saran, Siddharth Narayan, Anupam Kher, Shabana Azmi, Seema Biswas, Shahana Goswami, Samrat Chakrabarti, Rahul Bose, Soha Ali Khan, Anita Majumdar and Darsheel Safary.
Read on to for an interview with the director!
Cat Seto is known for her whimsical aesthetic, which started out as a charming paper goods line and has now expanded into a boutique and studio. So when fellow mom and entrepreneur Meg Mateo Ilasco approached her about co-authoring a book, she jumped on board. The result, Mom, Inc.:The Essential Guide to Runninga Business From Home, draws on the pair’s own experiences, as well as interviews with successful mothers like DwellStudio’s Christine Lemieux, to reveal the ins and
outs of running a business while still staying focused on home and family.
ISSUE: Summer 2012
DEPT: Plugged In
STORY: Daisy Miclat
PHOTO: Ruby Press
Audrey Magazine: How did you and Meg come up with the idea for the book?
Cat Seto: Meg’s known for this very popular series of crafting books, and she knew I started a whole bunch of businesses. I had stationary cards, wedding invitations, my own shop and a website dedicated to entrepreneurial women. She looked at my website, MomIncDaily.com, where a community of women get together to talk about biz how-to’s on topics from production to design. She knew that I would have some great tips and be helpful in creating a book about business for mothers.
AM: What were some memorable experiences while writing this book?
CS: There were definitely “mommy” moments during conference calls. My son would be yelling while Meg’s kids were falling and creating banging noises. Our calls would be really funny, but were really productive.
AM: What was your inspiration for Mom, Inc.?
CS: This book was inspired by both of our mothers. They were both workaholics who loved their families and took joy in doing what they love to do. My mother passed away while I was a pregnant with my son Nolan. It was a very difficult time for me. But it was very helpful to be supported by this community of women who went through similar experiences and were able to get through it. This book helped me to preserve the memory of my mother for both my- self and my son.
— Daisy Miclat
Mini Review: Legend
ISSUE: Summer 2012
DEPT: Plugged In
STORY: Kanara Ty
Dystopian young adult novels are all the rage thanks to the popularity of The Hunger Games, but Marie Lu serves up a novel that brings something new to the table: an Asian American literary male character who packs a lot of swag, has major ass-kicking skills with a heart of gold, and charms the socks off the leading female character (myself included!). How’s that for your lead character in a debut novel? With two warring states (the Republic and the Colonies) set as its backdrop, Legend follows two teenage star-crossed lovers, Day (the AA hero) and June, who each come from very different backgrounds — one is a wanted criminal with not-so-malicious intentions, while the other is a rising elite military officer. They cross paths in a cat-and-mouse chase, as Day is framed for the death of June’s older brother, Metias. Eventually, the two join forces to uncover the mysteries of his death and the secrets of the Republic, the governing body of the West Coast.
— Kanara Ty
THROUGH THE EYES OF BABES: During the four years of the genocide committed by the Khmer Rouge,
a small child is witness to daily horrors — as well as everyday humanity — in Vaddey Ratner’s
autobiographically-inspired novel, In the Shadow of the Banyan.
ISSUE: Summer 2012
DEPT: Plugged In
Story: Susan Soon He Stanton
How does one write about atrocities? Can there be good amongst all the evil? Vaddey Ratner’s debut novel, In the Shadow of the Banyan, answers these questions. The book reflects upon the Cambodian genocide of the 1970s, a nightmarish time during which 2 million Cambodians perished (almost a third of the population.) Ratner’s story is drawnfrom her own personal history; Ratner was 5 years old and a member of a royal family marked for execution during the Khmer Rouge regime. Disguised as a peasant, she survived years of forced labor, starvation and near execution, finally escaping and living long enough to tell a story not of despair but of hope.
The story is told from the point of view of Raami, a 7-year-old child crippled by polio. Thanks to this disability, she was often ignored and forgotten by those around her, allowing her to become a keen observer of her rapidly shifting world. The novel begins in the idyllic days before the fall of Phnom Penh, at Raami’s luxurious family home. Despite the epic turn of events, In the Shadow of the Banyanserves as a delicate character study, and the reader observes each family member through Raami’s watchful eyes. The characters who emerge most vividly from the narrative are Mama, who begins the story looking like “a butterfly preening herself” and smelling of jasmine, and Papa, known as the Tiger Prince and an emotional pillar of strength in the novel. Throughout the difficult times, Papa is able to retain his humanity, embodying the qualities of both a philosopher and a leader. Distinct but minor players are Big Uncle, who is larger than life, and Grandmother Queen, who suffers from dementia, living more in the past than in the present. Raami and her large extended family are forcibly relocated several times, and eventually separated.
Curiously, for all of the atrocities witnessed and hardships experienced, Ratner’s story is filled to an even larger extent with optimism and beauty. Ratner’s gift is her exquisite descriptions of the careful details of daily life, such as planting rice or observing a turtle swimming in a stream. Most of the accounts in the book concern these mundane details rather than focus on the lurid atrocities. The decline of Cambodia is painted in a hundred subtle ways: in the beginning, Papa remarks that their basil-seed dessert was not properly sweetened; near the end of the novel, Mama shares a water bug with Raami, who devours it ravenously. Through the novel’s slow pace, Ratner’s vision of the genocide becomes more real and disturbing. The Khmer Rouge’s four years of hell were not just an epic series of events but an accumulation of long and difficult days. Since the novel is told through the eyes of a child, certain larger political aspects of the time are not discussed in depth. However, Ratner subtly takes the reader through the reasons for the regime and the many ways the people were killed, including execution, starvation and malaria.Yet simultaneously, Ratner constantly finds opportunities to inject moments of surprising kindness or beauty throughout the story, reminding readers of the goodness of human nature.
In her author’s note, Ratner describes her desire to memorialize the loved ones she lost with an enduring work of art. Shehas done just that; hers is a beautiful tale with considerable poetry and restraint. In the Shadow of the Banyanis an important novel, written by a survivor with unexpected grace and eloquence.
