INDIRA LAISRAM

I can't thank my friend Deepu enough. She has so much confidence in my writing that her persistence has paid off. She sent something I wrote on friendship in this blog to publishers inviting short stories and the good news is that it was accepted and will soon be part of a book. It will appear in the series Chicken Soup For The Best Friends' Soul. I had no idea about the Chicken Soup series, underread that I am. In fact, there was a time when I would tease Deeps about chicken soup or chilli chicken, only to be met with ire! Soon after I received the contract from the publishers, in what seemed to be serious business, I googled and found out that Chicken Soup For The Soul Series has been in business for the past 15 years, selling millions of copies in countries such as the US. Mine of course, would appear in the Indian edition. Still it is part of a big family! I am basking in a new found glory. Also I watched Salt today starring Angelina Jolie. It was one of those weekends

It was a bright, sunny day. We decided to take a tour of the famous Melbourne Zoo. Lolo recalled his visit to the place as kids with his parents. Of course, much has changed. He revelled in the new imports - a few elephants and a smuggled big spider. Well, I read and re-read the note attached to the spider. It has now found a nice spot for itself in the zoo. I was happy to see the long queues. The sight of so many people always makes me happy and of course, I was told how 'people happy' I would have been yesterday - being surrounded by the young, the old, plenty of children followed by screams of 'mommy, daddy why, what, where'. Oh dear! The zoo had all the trappings of an animal farm - snakes, other reptiles, monkeys, geeraffe, tiger, lion, leopards, and other Australian animals such as the kangaroo etc. But I was particularly amused by the butterfly house. You don't expect butterflies in a zoo but I guess in developed countries everything is preserved for poster

I don't remember the last time I was star struck. But on Friday when I met Aamir Khan, I felt like a giddy-headed teenager and didn't want to leave Sofitel hotel where I had managed a ten-minute interview with the actor. I felt mighty privileged that I did have access to him when he is on such a military discipline here at the Melbourne international film festival where his film Peepli Live is being promoted. I say military because the man is so punctual - he was dot on time at the press conference and he timed all his interviews with the press and others. And I am told he has always been a stickler for perfection. As I entered the room, I was wary of the 15 pairs of eyes - his secretary, managers, PR staff - and here I was conducting a TV interview for the first time with a star of his stature. I am a print person and I have gotten away with mumbling and fumbling with the interviewee in the past, but when you are in front of the camera the fact that you don't want to mak