Former dishwasher, tree planter and security guard, Yann Martel, 39, staved off famous fellow Canadians like Rohinton Mistry and Carol Shield to win this year's Booker Prize for fiction. Martel's zoological thriller, Life of Pi, applauded by the jury as being "audacious", is the story of a Pondicherry lad Picine Patel who becomes a castaway with an assortment of incompatible animals—a hyena, a zebra and a hungry 450-pound Bengal Tiger—while exporting his father's zoo to Canada. The author's extensive travels in India no doubt inspired this schizophrenic Jungle-Book-meets-Robinson-Crusoe tale, and Martel said that winning the £50,000 prize was like being "in the arms of a beautiful lady".

Curtain Call

Neena Gupta, sometime film actor, full-time TV actor and one-time crooner, had not done theatre in 15 years, leaving a gap in an otherwise accomplished run. Now, with actor-director Rajendra Gupta, she has made Soorya Ki Pehli Kiran Se Soorya Ki Akhri Kiran Tak, a play set in ancient India when loincloth, cascading jewellery and strappy blouses were fashionable and sexuality was a spacious word, allowing a king to let his queen sleep with another man so she could conceive. "It's satisfying playing a character who completely transforms herself," says Gupta. She's good at that anyway ... if you skip the crooning bit.

Cottoning On

Nikhil Chopra failed to cement his place in the Indian team but is now giving his career a new spin. The cricketer, whose name also surfaced during the match-fixing controversy, has taken up the north Indian franchise of Mumbai's Cotton World, beginning with a shop in Delhi's Greater Kailash market and later in suburban DLF and Chandigarh. To optimize efficiency, he has also allocated charge of the women's section to his wife Nupur, while himself calling the shots in the men's zone. "When I'm in town I open the store and am here till closing," says Chopra, adding that he is usually playing Ranji Trophy matches when out of town and that he was "made a scapegoat" during the scandal. Clothes seem safer.

Wedding Behls

Producer-director Goldie Behl, who was previously best known for his heavily existential contribution to Bollywood, Bus Itna Sa Khwab Hai with Abhishek Bachchan, is now making news for better reasons. He is engaged to Sonali Bendre, a romance that took birth on the sets of Angaarey some years back and defied all odds (like the release of Bus Itna Sa...) to reach its reel-to-ring culmination. The sudden announcement came during the birthday bash of Amitabh Bachchan after Behl popped the question to the unsuspecting Bendre, busy clapping the union of Karisma and Abhishek. "You will get to know soon," is all Behl will say of the marriage date. Okay ... when are Karisma and Abhishek doing it?

-Compiled by Anshul Avijit