An artist and a chef

Suvir Saran captures people, places and flavors through the eye of his mind and his heart. 

Review of my 4th book, Instamatic, by Aasheesh Sharma for Mail Today by India Today.

Here’s  a contemporary counterpart of the renaissance man, a man of arts and letters; a Michelin star chef whose prowess with words and aesthetic with pictures is so artistically evolved you have difficulty deciding whether to first look at his photographs, mull over his musings or dig into his soulful food. 

 

As one begins to go through Saran’s word-paintings in Instamatic, (Milap Publications), it becomes clear that the author’s eclectic oeuvre is where the most exquisite in culinary, visual and literary arts converge. The book is a collection of 80 photographs, 80 essays and musings which Saran penned on his iPhone, during a phase of life when he could barely see, because of an illness.

 

Celebrated politician and wordsmith Shashi Tharoor writes in the foreword to the book: “The pictures and his word-pictures seen separately and together, share a perspective at once unique and thought-provoking…The next time I savour one of Suvir’s signature dishes, I know the taste will be enhanced for me by the knowledge that I am consuming, literally the work of a man, who feels and who, in in this volume, has taught us to feel as well.” With praise as fulsome as this, the reader’s appetite is whetted. And the entrée lives up to it. A celebrated chef who returned to New Delhi from New York, Saran’s exposure to people from all corners of the world gives him an ease in settings bursting with diversity. 

 

It helps that one of Saran’s greatest muses is New York City, that alluring melting pot of nationalities, tongues, flavours and cultures. He first arrived here at the age of 20 to study graphic design and art history. “I attended classes in the morning, worked full-time as well, and entertained almost every night… New York City has been my home away from home (India) for twenty six years. It is here that I come for oxygen, it has me feeling centered, it makes me feel for others, makes me feel human, and connects me with myself and the world,” he writes. 

 

Clearly it is a city that fuels his creativity and the pictures and words on the Big Apple reflect this. Sample this take on Manhattan: “Home to people from all corners of the world, who come wanting to make a home in Manhattan. Where the world is one’s oyster. Where people come hungry to live. Where life is richly nuanced.”

 

It is this nuanced life that Saran makes the most of. This isn’t Saran’s first foray into writing — he has earlier penned  Masala Farm, Indian Home Cooking and American Masala as well — but clearly dishing out this latest, delicious amalgam of text, pictures and art is something the author takes particular relish in. 

 

From Trieste to Kigali, New York to New Delhi, people, places and moments inspire Saran to weave his magical word-pictures. “New Delhi. My birth city, the capital of India…This city, its people, its architecture, food, history, street-life, cultural riches, parks and monuments – all seduced me from a young age and kept my interest most piqued,” writes Saran. Or sample his description of Nizamuddin Basti: “A rich panoply of colours provides a staggeringly rich armor of warm welcome to the street that leads mendicants, supplicants and devotees to the shrine of Khawaja Nizamuddin Aulia. Sufism is about more than the dancing dervishes. Their whirling, the ritual music and meditation, the focus on God and the losing of Nafs, ego, takes one closer to the Supreme. Arriving at the Nizamuddin Basti opens one’s eyes and soul to the colours and energy that set the stage for a deeply meditative journey as one walks the shrine and the neighbouring area.” 

 

Addressing a motley gathering of his admirers at a photo festival, the late legendary photographer Prabuddha Dasgupta had once described the essence of his art practice: “I want to have a long string of images held together by grace, because grace is that indefinable, non-rational, non-linear word I am looking for,” he had said. One wonders whether Saran knowingly or unknowingly inherited the legacy of one of the most iconic photographers India has known. But his pictures are as graceful as graceful can be. 

 

“We all see what we see, but we are capable of seeing much more if we pause, filter the moment, capture its gravitas, and reflect upon it,” writes Saran. 

 

They say the best lens is the photographer’s eye. Looking at Instamatic, it is clear that the medium becomes secondary — whether it’s a DSLR or  an iPhone — when the person behind the lens clicks with the eye of his mind and his heart.