Brewing Inspiration Over a Cuppa with Ashok Ferry & Q

This transcript was created automatically from the audio and checked for names. Minor errors may remain.

Hi everyone, welcome to Brew Academy. We're about all things tea. But tea is more than just a hot beverage, it's also about relationships, it's about inspiration, like the inspiration my father received from this incredibly wonderful herb and the taste, goodness and purpose in each sip of tea. So today we present the first of Brew Academy's Brewing Inspiration Conversations. We are going to talk inspiration to people from Sri Lanka and around the world. That means inspiration in entrepreneurship, in the environment, in climate action and of course how they like to take their tea. My guests at Brew Academy today are none other than Sri Lanka's most famous author and his daughter, soon to be her most famous jazz musician.

Ashok Ferry and Kew, thank you for joining me you to tea. Thanks for inviting us to that.

Okay, so we have to start where every tea should start with some tea. I hope you drink tea, Kew. You told me an interesting story of how you start your performances. Yeah actually because for so many years I didn't drink tea but then once I started doing gigs regularly I found that drinking herbal tea before performance really helped the throat and also if my voice isn't feeling so good then tea is very very good to calm it down so it prevented from getting so or anything. So yeah. Well tea is also loaded with a lot of good stuff so don't forget that it's good for your voice and good for your body as well. Now you told me an interesting story about your dad and the way he takes his tea. With lots and lots of sugar. Okay so add milk.

Sure, it's interesting at hotels like we're always stealing half the sugar sashes and stuff. No, no, no. I drink builders tea or sergeant majors tea. The spoon has to be able to stand up in the middle of the tea. It should be really thick with sugar and milk. You know because of the great respect I have for you and your work, you have got it right out of the room. I'm not going to offer you either milk or sugar. Oh my goodness. This can work on its own. This is torture. Actually it's going to be something quite different because I'm going to ask you to truly appreciate the tea. When you take sugar with tea it completely dilutes the natural goodness.

Try a little bit of honey, try a lemon, orange, rain, you can take mint. So many different ways.

You talked about builders tea and you also amongst your many accomplishments is that of a builder. Tell us a little bit more about Sanjay and where the inspiration for Sanjay in his building role came because to me it is exactly like everything I saw in London in the 1980s. You have captured it incredibly beautifully but also accurately. It's accurate to a point where I'm like oh my gosh, oh my gosh. In every page it's like these oh my gosh moments. How did you get that beating? Gosh, thank you for saying that Dilhan because I have been criticized for producing an imaginary world. What happened was I read P.O. Maths at Oxford, came down. I didn't have a visa to stay on in England. It's a very quick thing. I ended up completely by accident randomly as a builder's laborer. Now I've been lucky through various stages of my life to live in different kind of atmospheres, different sections, completely unrelated to each other, totally random. This was an area that for 20 years, actually longer, 30,

40 years, I've kept it at the back of my head. One thing about being a writer is you keep it there. It's like a bank and you need to put it down at some point. Once you do put it down you feel you've laid it to rest. So all these memories that you talk about are actually from real life. Almost all of them, particularly the London bits are almost absolutely lifted from life. But actually reading it, you know you've been called the king of Kalpitiya amongst other things. I read that this morning. Listen to that. Absolutely. You know that's quite an accolade. The uncrowned king of Kalpitiya said a very eminent reviewer.

So I love what you have done and really congratulations. But tell me what's it like living with a father who is also a writer? Oh my god. Now you're going to get it. How much time have you got? Go for it.

It's interesting. I mean I credit because I mean both my parents are quite artistic. So growing up I got exposed to a lot of culture and you know I think it's because of them that both my brother and I are you know he's a filmmaker and an actor. I'm a musician and you know I mean I like to act as well and dance. I long for them to be either a doctor, a lawyer or an accountant. Then I wouldn't have to work anymore. So you're becoming Sanjay. I'm becoming Sanjay. Well Sanjay is dead. Yes I longed for that. Did it happen? No. I should be working for the rest of my life keeping these two in the style to which they were never accustomed.

I remember once having dinner with a girl in North London. I was in South London. I drove up in my little escort van which has two doors at the back. It's a real builder's van you know. Had dinner and then I think I came back. The next day my mother calls from Sri Lanka because my aunt in Kandy had reported that I'd had dinner in London. How's that? In pre-email. That is, that's beautiful. And I thought to myself wow what's with these Sri Lankan aunties you know. Amazing. They are incredible. Auntie network going strong. Absolutely. Now Q, before your father strategically interrupted your explanation of what it's like, please do continue. Oh no I do. I mean so besides like growing up with a lot of culture I think we all, because we're all artists there are a lot of emotions running high in the household so it's easy to butt heads I think all the time. But other than that it's you know we all learn to try and get along. I was going to

say it's interesting both my children I mean they're both artists. They have different persona outside of the family than they do inside you know. And again I think that's a sort of protective mechanism. Both of you are much more... I'm more snappy. But you're more buzzy outside aren't you? You're both you and Rohan. I'm an artist. I can't help it.

I love it. Now you have been described as someone who writes, sings and performs for people to prick their conscience or maybe with purpose. I didn't get the exact context of that. This was in the Artra magazine where they described you as such. I mean that's nice that's great that you you because I think more people should think about what they do before they do it. Yeah definitely. Tell us a little bit more. Why do you sing and why do you perform? What excites you about it? Oh wow. It's a very deep question. Why they sing and perform. You know I got into singing because I was very good at also performing I think when I was young and I like to entertain. So singing just felt like a natural progression into it and I also really like listening to music and that library deepened when I went to university and started listening broadly as well. So it just felt like a natural progression because at the same time I was

studying English and drama. So writing and then I was performing all just filtered into this. So it's kind of getting into music felt like just a natural progression of it all. But yeah I mean I think you know I bought out an album sorry mini album last year and I think a lot of that was just about getting a lot of things thoughts in my head onto paper and obviously into a song format. So and I think I created the album mostly like for myself before anybody else. I think you should like create a lot of the art for yourself. But it's funny how a lot of the songs shaped up to be like my offering for women around me and I did that very unconsciously but it became you know something about something for the women around me because a lot of it is about talking about independence and you know making your own money as well. So yeah in a way I create and I perform you know for myself to fulfill a part of my soul but then I can't

deny this a lot of me that really likes to entertain people too. There is this irony in Sri Lanka at least I observe it that it is in every sense a matriarchal society and yet there is a dearth of opportunity for women in many areas even though their competence, their capability, their integrity is so aptly demonstrated. I mean you see it particularly in the rural areas and we see it in our foundation and so on. Tell me is that changing? I mean you are an example of the fact that it may be. What do you think generally? I think it's a very very slow progression that's what I'd say. I mean didn't we already just castor issues like the first female CEO like over here and like well that's been a long time coming considering how many women are in the corporate field to be fair. It's funny that you talk about women in the rural areas because my cousin works in like urban planning and also in rural areas and she says the entire

the entire village might pretty much would collapse without the help of women to pay too much because they keep everything going in and out just taking care of the children you know working a job making sure all the food is cooked. So I feel there there should be more opportunities for women and I think definitely in the future there will but it's a very slow progression at the moment. I was in Galle two weeks ago and I have the misfortune of having a vehicle where the previous owner has blacked out the windows apparently it's quite difficult to remove them. So I'm in this vehicle and parked somewhere in Galle I think we were trying to get fuel or something and four young women probably in their mid-20s walk past and they immediately seeing these blacked out windows made a very loud kaputaka ka kaputaka. Talking about keeping mouths shut you don't use a smartphone do you? No. So is that now I understand that when the family

assembles yeah it's your daughter who says put the phone away now yes yes but but never to me because actually this is put away it's like on a chair back there I mean I have it close by but I don't but but after lunch when I have my nap it switched off for two hours it switched off from 130 to 330 you will never reach me. Do you have a general disdain for technology or is it that the phone? No no actually I love technology I'm a mathematician remember so I'm on the science side of things not really on the arts so I do have a but I can see I have a very addictive personality there was a time at school we used to gamble you know on little chips and I can see myself getting so absorbed in it that it'll take me over so I can see that these things are very addictive. Yeah you check your Facebook quite regularly. Well about once every... No no no

you do. When I put an entry when I put an entry then I check it for the next week but how often do I put an entry on my Facebook? Maybe once every two weeks. That sounds very legal putting an entry into Facebook that's like almost going to a police station. To me it's a huge occasion when I put something up. Huge occasion oh my god 600 people have seen this.

Coming up to jazz I have a son who's just turned 21 he says that he wants to do everything differently yet he drives my 20 year old Land Cruiser which is a manual vehicle. He borrows my records which are LP records that I bought from the time of Sanjay in London and he shuns social media to an extent where he takes composed photographs on film scans it and posts it. So are we seeing a change? Are we seeing young people embracing? I mean when you look at jazz and when you listen to jazz and see some of the new jazz coming through there are such strong echoes of the past of vintage music and so on. What is your feeling and what's your genre? What do you enjoy? I mean for sure I mean on that first part of the question we're definitely seeing so many vintage throwbacks. I mean I think the 90s is quite now big with people who are like 16 or so and then definitely amongst the 20 year olds LPs

all of that you know as you said taking photos on film that's all coming back now because it's it's a I guess a slow pace of life compared to like how quick things are really and how they would have grown up with you know having access to phones and stuff. But yeah jazz um oh sorry hold that thought hold that thought because the food might be getting cold. Now I heard about your massive lunch your words not mine so may I interest you in maybe sweet or savoury? Most surely something savoury. Something savoury okay and you know tea goes incredibly well with any type of food because tea emulsifies the fats and it balances the sugars so you can have any of these completely guiltless nothing to worry. Are you sure? Absolutely absolutely and I'm going to send you the science so try try so but no milk and sugar in your tea.

Yeah so getting back to jazz you may also repeat the question because it totally went off on attention. No problem. You are you are absolutely long to be distracted by pies and macarons.

Leading into jazz lots of jazz it has echoes of vintage music of different genres but is it that there is an absence of originality in some of the new jazz or is it that this is what listeners want to hear? Oh I think it's it's hints of nostalgia plus amalgamation of everything that's kind of come before. Oh what do you mean well I um you know to be honest with you I don't listen to a lot of new jazz it's very much everything from like the 20s going into the 50s as well and all of that music was you know based around feeling based on spirituals that have come before people were basically suffering under racism and then poverty around them so that kind of ignited this fire that was jazz. So I think even currently now with modern music we're looking back further you know and trying to I think there is like maybe a certain lack of originality which is why we have to look back to other decades to get our inspiration for but at the other

on the other hand we are sort of making it our own thing too so you know it's a bit of both a bit of both nostalgia as well as wanting to create something original. Is it that society expects a constant stream of new things and human nature is not simply not able to? Yeah I don't think we're able to like sort of catch up I mean you see it even like in news cycles you know something pops out and then it's like viral for about what 72 hours and then everything dies down and people kind of move on to the next thing so it's like that that that that that and I think looking back on previous decades and the music then it's carefully considered you know I feel like disco is still like a huge thing like now even and we turn back to the music because it's still great music and I think it's because people took time over it for sure now you know

we have to keep churning our things and over and over and over again it's annoying. Now you didn't believe me when I told you that tea emulsifies fats if you try that pie and you get a little bit of the fatty deposits on your palate take a sip of your English breakfast tea you will then see for yourself what's going to happen but you're a purist where builder's tea is concerned I think because more recently I visited friends in London and there was this tea bag that went unceremoniously into a mug followed by lukewarm water followed by cold milk oh my god yeah yeah and it was left there completely neglected for all of about 60 seconds then a stir and a sip you know that is probably the most vile combination and process but trust me it's only vile because of the lukewarm water if that water had been boiling and you left it for 60 seconds it would have been perfect yes but whether you are a milk in first person or a milk in last person still when you add the

cold milk you make whatever it is lukewarm and so you you make it vile in any case that's true yeah it does bring the temperature down I don't find it makes I mean you know I don't put the milk in first always has to go in last because then you can actually watch the tea change in color and you know when to when to stop but anyway I don't like my tea boiling hot because it just calls my mouth it has to be not lukewarm but somewhere in the upper registers of that but actually there's a question for you I always sort of think how long do you brew brew it for or how long do you leave that sort of tea bag in for and let it so sit like what's the record you know that is the answer to that is so elusive if you amongst all of the explanations of how to brew tea from England that actually it is as simple as um goes good tea uh good water good water is spring water or water without

an excess of calcium definitely not London water which is ridiculously mineral rich and then it is hot freshly boiled water so it's around 94 degrees combine the tea and the water in the right proportion so that you have 200 mils of water to the tea bag and then you stir because the tea has to come into contact with the water to be able to to give out it's absolutely so the extraction process requires of brewing is extraction so then they it needs a minimum of three minutes if you're going to add milk as your dad obviously did it does so that's shocking um five minutes at least because any good food or drink must have a balance of flavors and texture so to get the balance you need to be able to so this is my point the milk has to balance it out and the sugar i'm telling the wrong person yeah i know that's i can't accept that you won't get the builder out of me you can try but

now tell me going back to that time yeah how does a mathematician become a writer or on on the way to on the on the road to writing becomes also a builder how did that happen i think this is something i i need to tell anyone and everyone if you you have to keep your mind open and that's something we in sri lanka really don't do well at all we are so stratified and so uh sort of our minds are very one track lawyer lawyer accountant you know you mentioned that this is what you wanted q to be right that is a joke i mean in another parallel world i'd love her to be a doctor and for me to sit back and relax in my old energy so keeps paying all my bills it's not gonna happen not gonna happen so no the thing is is so if the other point is that we sri lankaans i think across the board we're so hugely talented i don't know what this is

something in the water supply you know uh but what prevents us is other people laughing at us telling us we're not good at it and we're very good at that as well you know we're very good at sniggering and putting people down so if you keep an open mind and you're a complete ingenue and you decide i've got to try this and let's see you know and it's best to do is quite anonymously so that other people aren't able to put you down you find or one finds that one can do all these things you know it's not that much of a training that you need and you learn you train on the job you have a you have a beautiful insight into what it is to be sri lankaan so i want to ask you a question in the last few days we have seen q's generation showing us what is great about sri lanka because i remember reading um i think it was a probably not a very

great piece of literature but by calling the silver i think it was where he talked where he his preface was sri lanka is a country with a glorious past an undecided present and a lost future words to that effect ashok you have incredible insight into what it means to be sri lanka now people say that sri lanka is pregnant with possibility some people say that sri lanka doesn't have much of a future but this generation has shown us that we may actually be on the cusp of something great in harnessing that potential what do you think i couldn't agree more dilan um i've been back 34 years and we've i've seen i personally have seen almost everything that the country has thrown at us revolutions jvp uprisings tsunamis civil wars the lot but i think this is the first time i have felt a glimmer that we are onto something new and it's thanks to the younger generation and and i think they had they're much more focused than we are they're

less cynical than we are we have been through so much that we tend to be very cynical and think ah well you it's another flash in the pan we'll go back down again afterwards that's what's happened up to now but this is the first time i feel gosh i'm so impressed with this lot do you know they're all there they're all out there they're helping each other they're watching each other's backs as you saw do you know there's so much of that camaraderie but it's more than camaraderie it's teamwork it is truly something extraordinary now tell me do you dunk your biscuit in your tea oh i used to i used to ginger nuts in in there or digestives i prefer ginger nuts actually so does that corrupt the tea or does it enhance the tea but it's wonderful it's an all-in-one experience you see i'm not a purist as i keep saying teamwork the ginger nut tea milk sugar teamwork you got the wrong man here as a tea taster yeah i i don't know i mean i i'm really

lost for words because as a tea taster it's very hard it's very hard to but but trust me it's still the same tea and as long as it gives the same joy equal amounts of joy to you as well as to me you know the purist as well as the complete what shall i call it the corrupt you know what does it matter at the end of the day that that tea is achieving its purpose there is no joy like a good english breakfast with a brownie a nice rich chocolate brownie or a macaron no it's true you're right but but what you forget is that's the sugar that's complimenting your tea synthesizes the sugar so you don't have to worry about the sugar it's true it's why i prefer to put it on uh an all-in-one a lamprey if you like you have a beautiful synergy the two of you is this only because of the camera or how is it at home oh my god

as i know it's not even synergy it's like me barking at him half the time because he's done something stupid or he said something stupid i don't know why my family seems to think that i do stupid things you do all the time they make perfect sense to me but not to anyone else but if you're doing stupid things like this can you please do more yes there you are listen to him listen to the math encourage him tell me what's next uh there's another book in my head but it's sort of a book and and i don't i'm a real lazy song so when it comes to writing i wait and wait and wait two three years then i sit and it comes out really quickly but i've been told i've been told and i saw the other at a book club oh you're prolific six books in a quarter of a century i don't think that's prolific but they felt it was it's just that i think i try and leave it so long

in the head that when it comes out it's very quick and there's almost no editing i mean that book is virtually unedited there's almost nothing in there that's that's been uh jigged rejig for the benefit of aspiring young writers can you just give us a little bit of insight into your process uh yeah yeah um first of all i think i mean for young writers the biggest thing i mean there are two two two things that that are very difficult for a young person to do one is to lose your self-consciousness because you have all these aunties watching you so if you write about an alcoholic that means you must be an alcoholic no child you're obviously you know or you're this or you're a thief or whatever everyone assumes you're a thief it's a small place so it's very difficult to write out there what you really want to write it's tamed by your fear and if it's tamed physically the writing is too tame it will not survive so first

thing lose your subconsciousness i lose your subconsciousness second more important you need to be able to tap into your subconscious what is really you what is in there and that's very difficult to do clearly oxford mathematics isn't a big part of you because i don't see much of it at least the books your books that i've read or read off don't really be fair like he i think sees the shadow demons you had done something like quite akin to mathematics and how you structured it actually almost all of them have a mathematical structure but because mathematics to a non-believer is very ugly to me it's not it's the most beautiful thing on earth and still for me it's my number one thing because it's so ugly to a non-believer you have to disguise it it's like the skeleton underneath the underneath the flesh so if you like the mathematics is the skeleton and then as an author you spend your life covering it up with the flesh so that what the

reader sees is the person walking what you see is the skeleton walking you know but hopefully they don't if they see it then your job isn't done there you are so we have here a ginger chai ginger chai for me thank you so much that's yours and we have a cinnamon chai the best of salon tea and salon cinema thank you thank you sorry please continue yeah so there is a kind of fashion in all the arts and the sciences uh for people to wear their heart on their sleeve so you design a building like this what you're really saying is look at me how marvelous i am i'm able to construct a building that doesn't seem to be able to stand do you know whereas the artist i feel conceals that so it's only at the second layer when you stop to think you think oh my god how on earth does this building stand up you know it's it's an opposite philosophy you you hide your strengths and you leave it for people to discover i was thinking more of

oxford and oxford is a place that leaves a tremendous impression and for anyone who has been there i find that in many cases they can't stop talking about it now it irritates the heck out of me because i went to a place where all the oxbridge wannabes go which is the lsc on the road now um how is it that oxford doesn't feature prominently in your writing whilst colombo and england do so much um it may in the future i tend to pick little areas of of my life and then work a novel around it um and oxford is one of those things that i haven't really hasn't really figured um that is not to say didn't mean a lot to me it did hugely um certain things happened and the sheer life there i think again i was quite lucky it was the oxford of an earlier generation where it was very tough to get into it wasn't just on a letter you wrote you had this

incredibly tough oxbridge exam then you had a general paper then you had an interview now you represent the future in a very real sense as a woman as a successful entertainer as someone with incredible creativity um two questions um a where do you see the future because it's very easy to get lost or subdued by the present and uh b what's next in your future oh okay well so for the first one future is in what's the future of strilanka do you think or the few yes the future not for for women for your generation in strilanka in strilanka oh i think it just already depends on the next couple of weeks and i i feel so hesitant to answer because it can go any one way really um i'm trying not to be i'm a panicker well i'm sorry i'm a panicky individual so i'm like well this is not going very well i don't know but i and there's a bit of me that also

has a bit of optimism really that it will get better and definitely it's kind of like breaking apart everything and now trying to put it all back together and i'm sure in that new future we have more women who are in workforce we have more women at the forefront leading this country as well that of course is my greatest wish and hope um the second what's in my future um i i really want to use this year at rate perform and do more with my singing baby i'm ready to develop as a singer i don't feel like you ever stop learning whatever stage you're at so i'm definitely in this space of wanting to get better as a performer and uh you know i can't really plan now like a year ahead so i just do three months or like two days now with the current situation so you've been described as multi-talented and i i think that's not misplaced having heard you a while back at vertical i must say that that is undoubtedly

the case but tell me um it's not a great time for entertainers because the hospitality industry is affected by so many factors so what do you do um beyond the uh ordinary i'm beyond the i shouldn't call it ordinary but beyond the writing the the performing is there something new that's a project that excites you oh well i mean uh social media something digital different channel yeah to be to be fair like i i work with the arca initiative which is a sexual health organization we work on so we try and provide tangible and practical solutions to people here to help them with sexual health education so bit by bit we're trying to also bridge the gaps in everybody's knowledge because if your sexual health knowledge is very very important i must add that arca we have worked with them and i have met with them on a couple of occasions i love them because they did a fantastic session on reproductive health on several of our plantations and they are awesome and also one of the reasons why i would disagree

with you that we should not be anything but totally optimistic i know i have a bit of a manicure myself but um sitting thinking meeting people like you you then understand why there is reason for optimism now before we wrap up i need you to take a sip of this i mean this is amazing i'm gonna and you know i'm gonna stick to what's conventional just to avoid the wrath of my father in case he ever does watch this it's delicious well what's your father's favorite from all he likes annually in the morning and as i always remind him and in fact he probably taught me this at the beginning you should never have a favorite tea you should have a tea that you have with your brisket you should have a tea that you have with your chocolate etc etc and a tea for every moon a tea for jazz a tea for jazz we did we did some music pairing we had a tea for wagner which

was an angry tea then we had a tea that went with shawls which was a very light delicate noralia and we built this whole thesis around music and tea and music and it was it is a part of what we call the school of tea but i mean it's a great exactly and there's science to back that yeah exactly and it does it and they both together conspire to improve your mood which ultimately is what we're asked that's hospitality isn't it ashok q thank you it has been extraordinary having an afternoon with you and particularly over tea so no thank you for all the food which we will definitely eat after it's just not on camera have you knocked the cameras off no the cameras off you gotta finish this can you show us how you dunk just oh yes yes oh my goodness i think one of these would dunk best yeah so this is not a ginger nut yes sadly not a ginger but it looks it looks very very so you do it in the

in the regular tea or the milk tea no well i think either but this has all this other stuff on top side right but do it in there so you have there's an art is it to making sure that it doesn't crumble and fall off exactly right or even if half of that falls in that it doesn't matter so now are you eating or drinking what is the definition of what you just did you're doing both yes excellent multitasking excellent and you're making more efficient use of your time delicious cheers