BookWise

Akhtar's book launch called off

2011-09-26T21:36:00.000+05:30

Close on the heels of Shoaib Akhtar's book launch function being cancelled in Mumbai, another function which was to be attended by the Pakistani speedster on Tuesday for promotion of his controversial biography has also been called off.

The launch of the book was to be hosted by Landmark and HarperCollins Publishers India in the evening but has now been called off, a communication from the organisers said on Monday without giving any reason.

Sources said that the event has been cancelled because of unforeseen circumstances.

Two of Akhtar's promotional events in Mumbai had been cancelled though no official reasons were given.

Former India skipper Dilip Vengsarkar was to release Akhtar's biography " Controversially Yours" at the Cricket Club of India (CCI) premises on Sunday.

Full report here Times of India

Controversy claims Shoaib book launch

2011-09-26T20:36:00.000+05:30

The scheduled release of Shoaib Akhtar’s book in Mumbai on Sunday has been cancelled, with the organisers giving no reasons. Former India skipper Dilip Vengsarkar was to release Akhtar’s autobiography ‘Controversially Yours’ at the Cricket Club of India (CCI) premises. “The event has been cancelled,” confirmed a CCI official, without assigning any reason.

According to sources, the sudden cancellation may be because of less than flattering remarks about Sachin Tendulkar and Rahul Dravid in the book. Akhtar has made many controversial claims, such as Tendulkar did not have the ability to finish matches in the initial stages of his career. Meanwhile, a protest was held in suburban Dahisar on Saturday against Akhtar, for his comments on Tendulkar. Protesters carried Akthar’s posters on donkey-backs.

Full report here Indian Express

Huawei to embed Bhagat’s books

2011-09-26T19:51:00.000+05:30

Huawei will embed books from Indian author Chetan Bhagat in its MediaPad tablet, as a part of a deal under which Bhagat also becomes the company’s brand ambassador in India. Bhagat, who is expected to launch his new book The Revolution 2020 on October 7th, will be associated with the promoting the tablet, but Huawei tells the Economic Times that it will “consider the possibility of Chetan creating content for the brand, for instance, writing short stories that will be available for Huawei device users.”

For a books publishing industry still coming to grips with digital delivery of books, this does set a rather useful precedent, though one can’t be sure of whether such an offer will be open to other writers as well: Bhagat has mass appeal, and his books are positioned and priced to appeal to a readership that wants content that is easy and not high-brow. He is fairly active (and provocative) on Twitter, and has over half a million followers.

Full report here Medianama

NCP, Sena lock horns over Akhtar book

2011-09-26T19:38:00.000+05:30

Worried that the Sharad Pawar-led NCP may steal a march over the Shiv Sena in connection with Shoaib Akhtar's autobiography which reportedly contains controversial remarks about Sachin Tendulkar, Sena leader Uddhav Thackeray asked Dilip Vengsarkar to keep away from the book release function.

Akthar's autobiography was to be released at a function in Mumbai on Saturday. However, the event was cancelled even as the 'Rawalpindi Express' gave interviews to the electronic media about the book.

Akhtar has lashed out against his own team members in the book and is understood to have made remarks about the Indian batting master, who he claimed was afraid of his bowling as the delivery speed was over 150 kph. Uddhav is believed to have sent instructions to Vengsarkar to keep away from the controversial cricketer as Akhtar's remarks against Tendulkar have triggered a global backlash. Former Pakistan captain Wasim Akram has ridiculed the remarks and said it was an attempt to market his book before its official release on Sunday.

Full report here Times of India

Now, Gandhi Katha in paperback

2011-09-26T18:49:00.000+05:30

Good news for those who savoured every word of the favourite lecture series, Gandhi Katha - it is now not only available in paperback, but in three languages too. Based on the popularity of renowned Gandhian, Narayan Desai's lecture series, a book on Gandhi Katha was launched on Sunday at the Ahmedabad Management Association (AMA). The book was released in English, Hindi and a second version of the Gujarati edition was re-launched.

The idea of converting the lecture series in the form of a book was that of Narayan Desai, reveals AMA president, Pankaj Patel. "We had organised Desai's lecture series in December 2005. Later Desai expressed his wish to transcribe and translate the audio series into books and we took up the task."

Patel added that the Gujarati version of the book which was earlier launched was quite a hit and it proves that the interest of the people in knowing more about Gandhi has not dipped. "1000 copies were booked soon after the edition was launched. Gandhiji's holistic approach and non violent means will continue to help the people for generations."

Full report here DNA

Akhtar's autobiography must inspire others!

2011-09-26T13:43:00.000+05:30

Now that Pakistan pace ace Shoaib Akhtar's book, Controversially Yours, is virtually assured of bestseller status, will other players take inspiration to write autobiographies? Here are some title suggestions...

Pakistan fast bowler Shoaib Akhtar's recent and controversial autobiography made me think. If he can 'write' a book, why not Indian Test cricketers?

Here are suggestions for autobiography titles:
The Great Wall of India, My Very Very Special Story, Viru's Gunning for a Six, Yuvi's Six Appeal and Saving for a Raina Day.

The English way
At least nine cricket books were written after England regained the Ashes in 2005. I wonder how many will be written after Andrew Strauss' men dethroned India to reach the No 1 Test ranking. Some zany ideas for autobiography titles for them: Eat, Pray and Cook, It Rings a Bell, My Broad, Broad Ways, Swann Song, Waltzing with Strauss, Fox Trott and Flint off his game?

Some ideas for Australian Test cricketers: Fast bowler Trent Copeland getting a wicket off his second ball in Test cricket at Galle inspired me with this novel notion. Why not title his biography, Cope Lands a Winner? Then I saw Peter Siddle in the Australian dressing room sitting between Ricky Ponting and Mike Hussey. The title of his bio/ghosted autobiography sprung to my mind: Siddle in the Middle.

Full report here Mid-day

'Love is when I can't pay attention in class'

2011-09-26T09:55:00.004+05:30

Presenting an excerpt from Penguin's latest book by Ludhiana-based Chanchaldeep Singh Sandhu.

Penguin India's new series of 'mass market books' aims to target the youth by bringing out novels inspired by today's environment and situations at work or at college, different challenges they face in their love lives and relationships.

Debutante author Chanchaldeep Singh Sandhu's I Never Thought I Could Fall in Love is the story of a boy who did not know what he was capable of doing in life until he fell in love.

Here is an excerpt from the book:
Next morning, Sid came and insisted that I get ready to attend class. I resisted a lot, but he forced me to come with him to college. After so many days, I got dressed in clean and ironed clothes, after having showered and combed my hair. It felt I good. I liked my bearded look. I smiled at myself and followed Sid to college. As I entered class, I looked at Monica. She was wearing a yellow suit and looked as beautiful as ever. She looked at me; our eyes met for a few seconds but then the teacher came inside and the moment was broken. I hurriedly took a seat and became conscious that I was sitting next to Mickey.

Full report here Rediff

Akram tears into Shoaib Akhtar

2011-09-25T21:46:00.000+05:30

Former Pakistan captain Wasim Akram on Saturday ridiculed Shoaib Akhtar and his controversial biography, which has made several tall claims, saying the pacer was a "problem" when he was an active player and remains just that even in retirement.

Akram pooh-poohed Shoaib's claims of making Sachin Tendulkar uncomfortable with his pace in the Faisalabad Test in 2006 and also rejected some of the other allegations he has made in the book titled 'Controversially Yours'.

"I remember Sachin's one innings when he was 16 and touring Pakistan. Sialkot Test was Sachin's 4th Test. He made his debut in that series. There was a lot of grass on the pitch. Waqar and I bowled very fast. Waqar, I think, was 19 and Sachin was 16.

Full report here Times of India

Shoaib Akhtar turns back the clock!

2011-09-25T17:47:00.000+05:30

A new chapter to the history of one of the most controversial cricketers to ever grace the game was added as Shoaib Akhtar’s autobiography was launched in India on Friday.

Akhtar is supposedly the fastest bowler that the game has ever seen and is best remembered not only for bowling missiles that had stumps after stumps flying all around the ground but also for his antics off the field which included fights with the PCB, many disciplinary hearing and suspensions. His long run up to the bowling crease was as talked about as his driving around in an expensive sports car when on tour. He was the ultimate ‘Rawalpindi Express’!

But all this is about to change with the release of ‘Controversially Yours’. This is what he will always be remembered for from now onwards.

From the excerpts that have been released to the media, the book marks Akhtar’s journey from an economically deprived childhood, when his family couldn’t even afford new clothes for Eid, to breaking into the Pakistani team, to becoming the man that broke the 100mph barrier.

Full report here Express Tribune

New written worlds

2011-09-25T12:09:00.000+05:30

Egyptian writer Mansoura Ezeldin and Yemeni poet and novelist Ali Al Muqri hail from a region known for repressive regimes and rocked recently by people's upheavals for change. In New Delhi as panellists at The Hindu Lit for Life conclave, they talk to Subash Jeyan on what it means to be a writer, to engage in their own different ways with the issues important to them...
Writing is a way to freedom and a weapon against the many injustices in society. Yet, she insists, a writer is not a mere spokesperson for his/her nation or people. Meet Mansoura Ezeldin.

Tell us about your work with Akhbar al-Adab... and the contemporary literary scene in Egypt today…
I was the book review editor at Akhbar al-Adab literary newspaper till last month. I have taken a year off to finish my new novel because I wanted to devote all my time to writing. The contemporary literary scene in Egypt is really rich. Since 2002, we've been having a flourishing period; many bookstores have opened and many independent publishers support daring experimental writing, and we have a good readership compared to the 1980s and 90s. Egyptian literature, especially that written by the new generation, is daring and breaches many taboos and also beautifully written at the same time.

How are contemporary women writers in Egypt contributing to social change? What are some of their predominant concerns?
Egyptian women in general were in the forefront of demonstrations during the revolution. And many Egyptian women writers were with them. Women writers also play an important role through their novels and essays and columns in newspapers. There are many female political and social activists who are fighting now for a secular, democratic country. Many of them, including myself, don't want the Muslim Brotherhood or the Salafists to come to power. Because a possible victory of the Muslim Brotherhood will worsen Egyptian women's position as they have a backward, negative image of women. But I'm not afraid of them. Fear gets you nowhere. We're fighting a battle for building a new democratic country and in such a battle fear is the worst enemy.

Full interview here Hindu

'Indian English writers get fewer readers'

2011-09-25T12:03:00.001+05:30

Writer Anita Nair inaugurated the Indian Ruminations literary festival in Thiruvananthapuram on Saturday.

Nearly 70 delegates, including writers and poets from around the country, are participating in the two-day event, organised by online Indian English writers' journal Indian Ruminations.

The theme of the festival is ‘Exploring Indian Alternatives in Reading and Writing.'

Ms. Nair said although more and more young talents were coming up, Indian English writers did not get acceptance like foreign writers in India. “I think the whole idea of contemporary Indian English writing is a misnomer. A large section of people, especially the academia, do not recognise Indian writers post 1960s. Although Indian English writers are accepted elsewhere, in our own country we have fewer and fewer readers,” she said.

Additional Chief Secretary K. Jayakumar delivered the presidential address. Mr. Jayakumar said world writers were edging native writers out of the shelf in Kerala as world literature invaded the Malayalam literary space. “The space that is taken away does not belong to established writers but the struggling young writers of Kerala,” he said. Mr. Jayakumar said that with the advent of the Internet and blogging, the hierarchies of publishing had been shaken and the publishing business had become more democratised. “Our publishers should take up the responsibility of familiarising our writers to the world. Having good translations is equally important. Translation has to be encouraged and promoted as a highly paid profession,” Mr. Jayakumar said.

Full report here Hindu

Mamoni's health deteriorates

2011-09-25T11:52:00.000+05:30

Friends, fans and family members started to pour in at the Gauhati Medical College Hospital with their fingers crossed on Saturday as Jnanpith award-winning writer Mamoni Raisom Goswami's health deteriorated further since Friday night.

The litterateur was shifted to the hospital's Intensive Care Unit (ICU) from her cabin on Wrdnesday due to a lung infection. Though her health remained stable for next 24 hours, a convulsion on Friday night caused the deterioration. Currently, she is said to be in a critical stage.

State health minister Himanta Biswa Sarma rushed to the hospital on getting the news. Meanwhile, Ulfa pro-talks faction members also wished for her recovery.

"She has been in coma since February and her brains cells are not responding accurately. Convulsions on Friday night worsened her situation further. She is now on ventilator and her condition is very critical. Lets hope for the best," said A K Adhikari, surgeon at GMCH.

Full report here Times of India

'TCS deserved to go public much earlier'

2011-09-25T11:30:00.000+05:30

Subramaniam Ramadorai took the reins at TCS in 1996 when the Indian IT industry was on the cusp of a quantum leap in growth and globalisation. During his 13-year watch, TCS became the first billion-dollar IT company to come out of India, even though it only went public in 2004, more than a decade after companies like Infosys had stolen the thunder in the stock market. Now, two years after his retirement, Ramadorai reflects on the challenges he faced and how he overcame them, in his book that’s just been published, The TCS Story... And Beyond. In this interview with DNA, Ramadorai fleshes out some key takeaways from his TCS experience.

You’ve written about how you changed the TCS tagline from ‘Beyond The Obvious’ to ‘Experience Certainty’. What was the logic behind this change?
We felt we had to clarify the obvious in some way, because obvious was obvious to us but not to the customer. People went haywire in talking about the future, future and future, when you had not even created the future. So we were in two extremes: one was stating the obvious and looking inward, I know what I’m good at, this is what TCS does; the other way was to say, let’s define the future, in three words — Innovation, Technology, Consulting. Then we saw that 100 companies do the same thing (innovation, technology, consulting). It doesn’t communicate anything that is unique about TCS. So we hired a global branding company to interview a bunch of people and come back to us with a definitive statement that exactly describes the TCS DNA and that is easily understandable to everybody. The key thing that came out of all these deliberations was that these TCS guys deliver what they promise and they don’t promise what they can’t deliver. Out of that came ‘Experience Certainty’.

On the business side, it seems to have suited Tata Sons from an accounting perspective to run TCS as a subsidiary until finally you had your IPO in 2004. On hindsight, do you think you would have been better off if TCS had entered the market 10 years earlier, along with its peers like Infosys and Wipro?
We always had this debate. It’s not as if we decided in 2003 to go public in 2004. It was a continuous journey of looking at what was good for the parent, what was good for TCS’ growth, and what was the right thing to do. It is true we were not getting the visibility we should have had. We had everything that was required for us to be listed earlier than a lot of other companies because we had been in the industry much longer than them. But it was a constant process of dialoguing with the owners, Tata Sons, and coming to the conclusion that we will do it when the time is right.

Full interview here DNA

Hindi is going places, literally

2011-09-25T10:31:00.000+05:30

Hindi may not be widely spoken or used by India’s urban youth. However, in spite of stiff entry barriers, the language has now found favour with Oxford Dictionary, widely regarded as the most trusted of all dictionaries.

In fact, a Hindi word for almost every emotion can be found featured in the Dictionary. Sample this: Achha, badmash, bindaas, buddhu, sadhu, goonda, neta, seth, chhi-chhi, and namkin. The more popular ones are bapu, dhaba, dharna, gherao, mahajan, jhuggi, and ‘Hindutva’. The list is merely illustrative.

Juliet Evans, publicity manager, Oxford Dictionary, said, “Increasing multiculturalism may have led to more Hindi words being incorporated into English, and therefore a steadily increasing number enter our dictionaries each year.”

She explained that whilst 274 Indian words were added to the Dictionary, 374 words of Hindi etymology are also now a part of it.

Three hundred and thirty seven words from Sanskrit, 144 from Urdu and 27 from Tamil have also been incorporated into Oxford Dictionary.

Full report here DNA

Review: Lokpal

2011-09-25T09:34:00.000+05:30

review

Lokpal: Facts and Arguments
Parsa Venkateshwar Rao
Har Anand
Rs. 295; Pp 134
ISBN : 9788124116524
Hard Back

About the book
This book traces the developments with regard to the Lokpal legislation in the past and in the present. The debate in the Lok Sabha in August 1969 before the passing of the Lokpal Bill is discussed along with the many texts of the Lokpal bills prepared by the Anna Hazare group and the UPA governments as well as that of the five ministers in the Joint Drafting Committee. The work and observations of the Lokyuktas in the states is discussed. It also looks at the political assumptions that each side brings to the debate in the present, and what it means for the political culture and life of the country.

Reviews
Full review here DNA
As the idea for writing this book was suggested to the author by the publisher only in the last week of June this year and the book was out on the stands by the end of August, it was clearly written in a hurry. There are, therefore, many printer’s devils, grammatical errors and disjointed sentences which hamper the flow of reading.

Having said that, it’s a timely book on a hotly-debated subject, and clears a lot of misconceptions about both the government and Team Anna’s version of the proposed Lokpal Bill.

One of the commonest fears about team Anna’s Jan Lokpal Bill is that with its sweeping powers, the Lokpal itself could become a monstrous, corrupt genie impossible to tame. Well, the present draft does have a few provisions to prevent this. For one, once a case is closed, all documents related to it will be treated as public, and every month a list of such cases will be put on the website with reasons for closing the case. Further, all the material related to the case will be provided to anyone seeking it under the Right to Information Act. Second, the hearings before the Lokpal will be video recorded and available to anyone who pays for the copying costs.

Politics, cinema at Delhi literature fest

2011-09-24T21:53:00.000+05:30

Politics, Anna Hazare, new wave cinema and changing trends in contemporary writing will be on offer at the daylong 'The Hindu Lit for Life' festival on Sunday.

The Delhi edition of the festival, which will lift the curtain on the two-day literature extravaganza and the awarding of the Hindu Literary Prize Oct 29-30 in Chennai, will begin 9 am at the India Habitat Centre, a spokesperson for the festival said.

The Delhi edition of the festival will be presented by Siyahi, a literary forum.

One of the high points of the festival is a session on 'New Wave Cinema', sponsored by Om Books International, which features the award-winning director of 'Rang De Basanti' (2006) Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra in conversation with cinema writer Jai Arjun Singh.

"It is a celebration of the country's rich visual literature. India has produced a world class writers across all genres. Cinema holds a very special place in my heart and I am delighted to get Mehra on board to deliberate on the new trends of cinema and his contribution to Indian cinema," Ajay Mago, publisher of Om Books, said in a statement.

The literary spotlight will be on Esther David, who discusses her work in a session 'Are You Going to Eat All That'.

Full report here IBMLive

A celebration of literature in our lives

2011-09-24T21:18:00.000+05:30

The Hindu's Lit for Life, a three-day, two-city conclave, will delve into various forms of writing

India has always had a strong literary tradition and the past few decades have produced dozens of outstanding writers. Until recently, middle-class Indians seemed to know more about foreign writers than about their own. It took a while for the Indian writers to take the centre stage, but when they did it was with a bang.

With more Indians writing in English, there was a concurrent boom in the publishing industry and that began to spill over to the media, especially newspapers. The Hindu had always had two pages devoted to book reviews, but with the growth in the publishing industry and the rising number of Indian writers, need was felt for a special supplement devoted to literature and issues in the literary world. There was, obviously, more to literature than just book reviews. Thus, on November 3, 1991 was born the Literary Review. For 20 years, this has been the only supplement devoted to literature and books published by a daily newspaper.

Full report here Hindu

RSS leaders congratulate Dr Kambara

2011-09-24T12:55:00.000+05:30

Senior RSS functionaries of Karnataka congratulated veteran Kannada writer and winner of Jnanpith award Dr Chandrashekara Kambara at his residence in Bengaluru on September 22. RSS National Executive Member Shri MC Jayadev, national president of Shaikshik Mahasangh Prof. K Narahari, editor of Utthana monthly Shri SR Ramaswamy, RSS Sah Prant Karyavah Prof BV Shreedhara Swamy, general secretary of Rashtrotthan Parishat Shri N Dinesh Hegde and chief of Samarasya Vedike Karnataka Shri Vadiraj visited Dr Kambara’s residence.

Shri Jayadev along with Shri Ramaswamy and Prof K Narahari honoured Dr Kambara. They also had an informal talk on education system with Dr Kambara for half an hour. Dr Kambara expressed happiness over the visit of RSS functionaries.

Full report here Organiser

A new chapter

2011-09-24T12:23:00.000+05:30

Author Anita Nair, who turns scriptwriter with “Lessons In Forgetting”, talks about her constant quest to reinvent herself

“Joyously invigorating, and agonising,” is how Anita Nair describes the experience of writing the film script for of her latest novel Lessons in Forgetting. “While fiction is my first love, I need to constantly challenge myself. Hence I seek different forms and structures,” says the author of novels such as The Better Man, Ladies Coupe, and Mistress, besides many short stories, essays, travelogues, and poems. Lessons in Forgetting takes the issue of female foeticide head on. Says Nair: “According to a 2007-survey by the UN, over 2,000 unborn girls are aborted every day in India. While it is illegal to reveal the sex of the child through pre-natal scans, the law has so far been ineffectual. Son Preference for sons, dowry, and patriarchal systems are said to be the key reasons for female foeticide. According to campaigners, many fertility clinics in India offer a seemingly legitimate facade for a multi-billion-dollar racket — gender determination is still big business in India.” The film is produced by the Bangalore-based Prince Thampi of Arowana Consulting. It marks the directorial debut of Unni Vijayan, alumnus of Film and Television Institute, Pune. Made in English with sub titles wherever the dialogue is in Tamil, the film it is to be completed by early October. Excerpts from an interview with the author.

The book received good reviews. Were you sceptical about adapting it into a film?
Not really. As I was doing the screenplay myself, I knew I would be able to capture the essence of the book without losing its layered textural values. There were instances where I left bits out, and at other times introduced a new scene to make the connection seamless. I had some semblance of control. It was also a learning experience.

You recently translated Thakazhi Sivasankara Pillai's magnum opus Chemmeen…
A translation would require me to walk the way of another writer and see his landscape and characters through his eyes. The very first line of the book had me in knots. Chemmeen is in fishermen's dialect. This was unfamiliar territory and I put the pen down. What was I going to do? Over the course of the next fortnight, I roped in my secretary, a Malayali, to read out the book aloud to me. I have no formal education in Malayalam. What I do have is an ability to understand and comprehend the nuances of the language. The familiarity with the cadence grew into a natural ease. It was perhaps one of the most creatively satisfying things I have done.

Full interview here Hindu

Book fair to turn into treasure trove

2011-09-24T11:25:00.000+05:30

Book lovers will love this. Interested in buying books at throwaway prices. Visit the ongoing book fair at the Institution of Engineers (IEI) held by a Goa-based book shop.

Broadway Book Centre, Panjim, is offering a variety of books in fiction, education, management, medical, children’s stories and teaching books with addition to interior designing, photography, artists’ collections and travel guides at just Rs50.

The owner of Broadway Book Centre, Khalil Ahmed, said that the month-long fair would continue till October 9. It is open from 9 am to 9 pm.

Although the bookseller has been organising such events since 2001, it is for the first time that they are selling books at such a low price to clear stocks of its three stores in Goa.

The owner has put on sale over 1 lakh books, half of which is already sold.

Full report here DNA

Nationalise school education: Kambara

2011-09-24T00:44:00.001+05:30

Jnanpith award-winning poet-playwright Chandra-shekhara Kambara on Friday strongly advocated imparting education in the mother tongue. “You can learn English as a language. I feel Kannada should be the medium of instruction. After 10th Standard, you can have a choice”, he contended. Mr Kambara argued that the State should not privatise education till 10th standard. “Let primary and high school education be state-sponsored till 10th standard to wipe out the disparity between children from upper class and downtrodden”, he said.

The playwright downplayed the Karnataka-Maharashtra border issue maintaining that one should not attach much importance to the ‘unwanted dispute’ created by some people from across the border. Mr Kambara, who hails from Belgaum district, said, “I have many friends, including several writers, in Maharashtra who are least bothered about this issue. For some politicians, this issue should be kept alive in the form of a dispute so that they can thrive. If there is no issue, these people will find it hard for their survival”, he said.

Full report here Deccan Chronicle

Creativity blooms from divine grace

2011-09-24T00:12:00.000+05:30

He is a novelist, a short-story writer and a screenplay writer, all rolled into one. Peace has been his mission and the essence of his writing. Balakumaran explains to M. Balaganessin how the temples in and around Tiruchi have been a catalyst to develop tranquillity, peace and noble thoughts. Be a writer or a painter or an artiste, any creativity will be ideal and perfect, only if the creator is blessed with peaceful thoughts, the veteran writer pronounces.

For him, a visit to Tiruchi is a delight for more than one reason. Temples in and around the city have been a source of inspiration for him, blessing him with a gift to realise divine grace. Mr. Balakumaran says that he had meditated at various temples in Tiruchi, constantly uttering some sacred ‘mantra'. He specifically says that it was the Sri Samayapuram Sri Mariamman temple where he realised the eternal bliss differently. “The Divine Mother at Samayapuram has been a guiding force in my quest for realising the supreme power,” he says.

Full report here Hindu

'Pak GenNext in US doesn't want to return'

2011-09-23T20:54:00.000+05:30

In the new generation of Pakistani immigrants to the US, the ties that bind youngsters to their Asian homeland are fast disappearing, says Jabeen Akhtar, writer and policymaker of Pakistani origin from the US.

"We cannot be expected to speak about what's happening back home in Pakistan and India all the time," Akhtar, who drafts policies for the People for Ethical Treatment to Animals (PETA) in the US, told IANS.

"I know of many immigrant friends who don't want to return home," she said. "Personally, I don't want to go back."

Akhtar, who has made her debut as an novelist with the much-talked-about Welcome to Americastan, is in India to promote her book.

She said she wanted to provide an alternative perspective on the young South Asian Islamic diaspora in Washington, DC.

"Every book on South Asia has arranged marriages and this idea of the home country being an exotic locale," Akhtar said. "The protagonist takes his exotic odyssey back home... it involves an identity crisis. The 'goras' (whites) may like it but the idea is a bunch of crap!"

Her book provides an irreverent snapshot of Pakistani immigrants in the US through the eyes of young Samira, a Pakistani-American woman.

It has been hailed by critics and senior writers like Bapsi Sidhwa and Moni Mohsin as a funny, original and thoughtful look at her community.

Full report here Daijiworld

Hanif takes darker turn in new novel

2011-09-23T20:42:00.000+05:30

Mohammed Hanif’s 2008 debut, A Case of Exploding Mangoes, employed satire and the distance of a recent historical setting to bravely grapple with issues of military dominance and authoritarianism that continue to afflict Pakistani society.

Mr. Hanif has followed this success up with Our Lady of Alice Bhatti, a novel set in contemporary Pakistan which is darker, less humorous and perhaps more daring than his earlier work.

The novel centers around Alice Bhatti, a beautiful, scrappy 27-year-old whose father is a drain cleaner from French Colony, a poor Christian quarter of Karachi, as she tries to make her way in life by training as a nurse, marrying a bodybuilder and becoming a mother.

Karachi, one of the world’s most violent cities, is a faintly-sketched backdrop for the daily degradations that Alice must face as both a woman and a poor Christian. She’s attacked at nursing college by a group of Muslim girls for being a “kafir” and later jailed for an operational procedure gone wrong that was not her fault. She is sexually assaulted by a rich, gun-toting man from an “old money” family in the VIP room of a hospital, with a casualness which is sickening.

Full report here WSJ blogs

Books banned in India

2011-09-23T20:39:00.000+05:30

Though India is a democratic nation, the suppression in India mainly targets religious issues. The Constitution of India assures freedom of expression but places certain restrictions on substance, with an outlook towards maintaining communal and religious harmony, given the narration of communal tension in the nation.

Listed below are a few books that created a "topsy-turvy" situation in India which led to ban against these books.

Salman Rushdie's "The Satanic Verses"
India has uncertain respect of being the initial country in the world to ban the Indian-born novelist's divisive work "The Satanic Verses". The novel written by Salman Rushdie had subsequent protest from dominant Muslim leaders. The novel was banned in India in 1988, and fatwa was imposed on Rushdie by Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khomeini on February 14, 1989, for demeaning Islam. Rushdie had to spend almost a decade in hindrance. Though Iran has held its government will not carry out the fatwa's death-sentence dictate, the book remains banned in India.

Full report here Siliconindia

Kissinger’s China, India’s neighbor

2011-09-23T19:34:00.000+05:30

“On China” is Henry Kissinger’s effort to draw a long arc that traces the political history of China, from an ancient civilization with “no beginning” to a modern-day state that is fast becoming the 21st century’s most consequential power.

November 24, 1973: Then U.S. Secretary of State
Henry Kissinger, right, with Mao Zedong, left, in Beijing.

Can India learn anything more about its neighbor from a diplomat who has closely watched the country over the last 40 years?

The book’s prologue dramatically starts with a conversation between Mao Zedong and his top commanders on the eve of China’s war with India in October 1962. The border war is one of the only parts of the book where Mr. Kissinger deals with India directly, giving a blow-by-blow account of events. India gets little attention elsewhere, which may be an accurate depiction of the lack of deep engagement between the two neighbors historically, or perhaps a reflection of Mr. Kissinger’s acceptance of the current Beijing narrative that India is inconsequential to China’s rise on the world stage.

But Mr. Kissinger’s story on how the border conflict came to be is interesting in its own right, given that it sharply contradicts the popular Indian version of itself as the aggrieved party.

The former U.S. Secretary of State goes back to the 1912-1914 Simla conference convened by the British with Chinese and Tibetan authorities to settle the borders between the three countries. The Chinese delegate, citing his country’s weakened condition at that stage, initialed the resulting agreement on the McMahon line but did not sign the document, thus keeping the border dispute open. Decades later, in the late 1950s, upon completion of Tibet’s annexation, Mr. Kissinger says Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai made an offer to accept the Indian position in the west (Arunachal Pradesh) in return for recognition of Chinese claims on Aksai Chin in the east. India Prime Minister Nehru rejected the offer.

Full report here WSJ blogs

The cry is heard!

2011-09-23T12:21:00.000+05:30

Ah! Those were the days – very carefree years. Lucknow then was a quiet, sleepy town. Between getting whacked by the monitors and teachers of La Martiniere College (my alma mater – and yes, corporal punishment was more the norm than the exception…) life was a blur of flying kites, playing marbles and gulli-danda. What I remember most about Mart was the adaptability that it taught us – something that held me in good stead all my life. It was at Mart that I acquired the reading habit – thanks to Mrs. Dignum, my teacher and housemaster's wife. She was the one, who made me fall in love with story telling. I vividly remember sitting under the trees by the cricket / football field (yes, barring mind games, I was not much interested in sports…) and spinning yarns to other shammers like me….

Next came the National Defence Academy and then the Indian Military Academy. The sudden move from Mart to NDA was a shock to the system. All at once the carefree days were over. Life in NDA was fun and amazingly transformational, and certainly more gruelling…horse riding, hang gliding, sailing, all kinds of (some very insane) sports, firing and grenade throwing. NDA gave us exposure to a world we were not even aware off. Being a first generation soldier it was horizon widening for me.

Full report here Hindu

The Pratham girl story

2011-09-23T12:20:00.000+05:30

Pratham Books celebrates the International Girl Child Day with a unique marathon

This Thursday and Friday, the team at Pratham Books was busier than usual. They had organised a Live Write-a-thon, to commemorate the International Girl Child Day (September 24), and the launch of their new website (www.prathambooks.org).

Four women authors and four illustrators from across the country got together for the occasion to pen a book in two days. “Since we strongly believe that reading is an important tool in the development of a child, we are launching this book on the International Girl Child Day,” said Mala Kumar, Editor, Pratham Books. “And we wanted our online community to be a part of this event. The idea of doing a book online with collaborators from all over the country seemed just right.”

Full report here Hindu

The new you

2011-09-23T12:15:00.001+05:30

Sajeev Nair on breaking the rhythm of the same old thought process and creating new synergies
Sajeev Nair, a success coach and mentor, after authoring three self-help books in Malayalam and Tamil, has now come up with one in English, Tathaastu: Transforming Thoughts into Reality. Through his book, based on a thought-provoking subject, Sajeev encourages people to develop an optimistic approach. The objective of bringing out the book is to enable people to change their thought process. Excerpts from an interview with the author.

What prompted the move from business to transformational success coaching?
My entrepreneurial journey started with Amway, where people development is a continuous process. We helped people from all walks of life to become entrepreneurs, the training and coaching interventions were very powerful. I myself got amazed the way people got their lives transformed. I started developing a passion for creating positive transformations in people. It reached a level where I realised that more than the business what I like is to see positive transformations happening in others' lives.

Full interview here Hindu

Horror show

2011-09-23T12:13:00.000+05:30

What makes violence acceptable in books for young readers?

Suzanne Collins' “Hunger Games” has recently been the focus of articles on violence in children's books. The book is about a young girl selected to compete in a reality show. The winner gets to live. As in the most frightening dystopias, the story is set in the near future, in North America. The population has been decimated. The few who remain scrounge for food, and once a year the authorities select 24 young people, two from each of the twelve districts, to fight each other to the death. The novel is highly readable. For those who feel books should let children be children, I would say, Yes, but.

It is patronising to imagine that children cannot face violence on the page when we know what they face in life. Childhood is not idyllic for all children. Some are abducted, or sold by their parents to work on tobacco farms and in factories, fight in armies, and worse. Collins brilliantly ties it all to today's television reality shows, where respectable adults visit psychological and emotional violence on children while everyone applauds, and a classic is born.

Full report here Hindu

Kovalam Lit Fest to have Delhi stopover

2011-09-23T09:00:00.001+05:30

The famed Kovalam Literary Festival (KLF) of Kerala will have a one-day stopover in Delhi on September 29, the first time outside Kerala.

The Delhi leg, scheduled to be held at the India International Centre (IIC) here, will be followed by the two-day main event, now in its fourth year, on October 1 and 2.

Pakistani and Israeli writers will join Indian literary stalwarts for the Delhi leg.

"The KLF has now moved to the national stage and is now firmly established as India's second biggest literary festival. Our brand equity has also improved considerably over the last four years and that is the reason why the support to the event is growing,’’ KLF founder-director Binoo John said.

Two of Israel’s best known literary figures, short story writer Savyon Liebrecht and playwright Motti Lerner will be taking part in the Delhi event. Another highlight of the festival will be the presence of Pakistani writer Mohammed Hanif, the author of "A Case of Exploding Mangoes", who will be reading for the Delhi book lovers from his new novel, "Our Lady of Alice Bhatti". He will also be in conversation with Indian author Manu Joseph.

Full report here Netindian

Kambar bats for Kannada in schools

2011-09-23T00:43:00.001+05:30

Jnanpith award winner Chandrashekhara Kambar on Friday suggested that all schools having classes from the lower kindergarten (LKG) to Standard 10 must be run by the government and that the medium of instruction up to class 10 must be in Kannada.

Kambar, noting that there is a wide divide between students who pass out of private, English medium schools and those passing out of government-run, Kannada-medium schools said: “This can be removed only when the government runs all the primary and high schools. They can allow any private management to run educational institutions from the PU level.”

His justification for having Kannada as the medium of instruction was that only mother tongue can provide an experience, which is an integral part of learning and learning through any other language only gives people information, which makes them less competent.

“I am not saying that one should not learn English. All I am saying is that learn even English through Kannada, because it is essential to have an experience when one is learning and being merely suffocated by information will not take us far. Even learn Japanese if you feel it is necessary but don’t compromise on having Kannada as the medium in primary and high school,” Kambar explained.

Full report here Deccan Herald

Ramadorai recalls the TCS Story

2011-09-22T20:48:00.000+05:30

Tech geeks are always busy dabbling in software and hardware language that they hardly indulge in tales of their work, but former chief executive officer of Tata Consultancy Services, Subramanium Ramadorai, proved it otherwise with the launch of his book The TCS Story … and Beyond.

Speaking at the launch of the book by noted scientist M S Swaminathan here at a function organised by Penguin Books and Taj Coromandel in association with the Confederation of Indian Industry on Wednesday evening, the advisor to the Prime Minister in the National Skill Development Council said the book is about getting the story from an IT professional and it is the biggest challenge considering that their whole day is spent on working with hardware and software.

“It was a challenging experience to put in my 40 years of experience in 300 pages and the biggest was to make the IT professionals recall a project to capture the finer nuances of the experiences. As such, I mastered the art of asking the same question so that I could get what I am looking for,” disclosed Ramadorai while highlighting how he went about compiling his book.

Full report here IBNLive

Socialist push behind India’s capitalist rise

2011-09-22T20:46:00.000+05:30

Twenty years ago, India faced a fiscal crisis caused by profligate public spending and rising oil prices after the first Persian Gulf War. There was a risk it would default on its international payments.

The finance minister, an English-educated Sikh economist named Manmohan Singh, responded to an almost unmanageable situation by liberalizing trade and industrial policies.

So India entered a bright world of market-driven capitalism after years of socialist darkness, and was set on its current path of almost 8 percent annual growth in gross domestic product.

Or so the story goes. Like all historical watersheds, India’s economic liberalization in 1991 has generated its own share of heroes and myths. Few books or articles in the mainstream press about Indian politics and economy in the past two decades have been judicious with their praise for Manmohan Singh, the apparent slayer of India’s socialist fantasies, the prophet of free-market logic, and for the past seven years prime minister of India.

Full report here Bloomberg Businessweek

Simon & Schuster eyes digital space

2011-09-22T20:40:00.001+05:30

The booming publishing market in India has lured yet another international publishing firm, Simon & Schuster, which is high on the country's growing digital reading space.

Simon & Schuster, the publishing segment of CBS Corp, Wednesday opened an India-specific unit.

The publishing house wants to cash in on digital transformation, the demand for inexpensive books and the inherent financial advantages like lesser material and allied costs in India, said Carolyn K. Reidy, president and CEO of Simon & Schuster.

"In India, the digital book revolution has bypassed e-readers and tablets (reading e-tablets with screens) to reach mobile phones, unlike in the US and UK. Everyone in India has a mobile phone but not all own e-readers or tablets," Reidy said.

Full report here Economic Times

‘Happy, but under pressure’

2011-09-22T12:49:00.001+05:30

Flooded with congratulatory phone calls and messages from well-wishers and dear ones for winning the 45th Bharatiya Jnanpith award for 2009, Hindi literary giant Amar Kant looked relaxed and happy.

But the views of the octogenarian on the government’s attitude towards writers have not changed much.

“Does the government care? It is not only about writers. Young scientists, researchers and other such people — they all need support. Otherwise, how will you get fresh writing, new innovations and discoveries? These people need to experience the world and need to travel far and wide,” said Kant at his modest home at Panch Pushp Apartments here.

Nearly three years ago, fighting illness and a bad financial situation, Kant was so fed up with the apathetic attitude of the government that he contemplated selling his Sahitya Akademi Award, which he had won in 2007 for his novel Inhi Hathiyaaron Se. He had then said he wanted the government to “serve him” in the same way as he had served the people all these years through his works.

Full report here Indian Express

Speaking from Shivapura

2011-09-22T12:32:00.000+05:30

Poet, playwright and novelist, recipient of the 2010 Jnanapith Award Chandrashekara Kambaraa, interrogates modernity with myths, folk narratives and native theatrical forms

When Chandrashekara Kambaraa wrote his long narrative poem “Helatena Kela” (Listen, I will Tell you)in the early 1960s, he introduced, knowingly or unknowingly, some of the recurring themes which he would often return to in his later works. The poem which sings in praise of the traditional past and laments over the loss of innocence due to the onslaught of the modern forces clearly set the tone of his works that followed. Themes of tradition and modernity, crises of feudalism, native identities, colonialism, march of history, sex, loss of faith, the death of God and several related themes explored later in his plays, novels and poetry had found metaphorical expression in the narrative poem. “Helatena Kela” which could well be the central metaphor created by Kambara is located in Shivapura, an imaginary utopian village which continues to be a character, a metaphor and the locale in most of his works.

Kambara who has made Kannadigas proud by bringing the eighth Jnanapith award for Kannada is arguably among the best of the three greatest modern Kannada poets (the other two being D.R. Bendre and Gopalakrishna Adiga) and has trodden his own path deviating from both the stalwarts. His creative engagement with myths, folk narratives and native theatrical forms has helped him develop a distinct style and world view and makes him stand apart from his predecessors as well as his contemporaries. Though Kambara began as a Navya writer, he seems to have realised too soon that the Navya mode did not suit his sensibility. So he set out exploring the collective psyche of the community through native myths which were almost unexplored till then in modern Kannada literature. The non-Vaidika mythical world not only provided him the world view but also the rich texture, lyricism and the raw energy of the rural dialects. Though Kambara kept on journeying to the past like a ‘modern man in search of a soul', to borrow an insight from Carl Jung, the journey seldom refrained him from negotiating contemporary themes. In his poems on Mao Tse Tung or plays like “Jaisidanaika”, or “Harakeya Kuri” he has treated themes related to contemporary politics with a progressive outlook, albeit being naive at times.

Full report here Hindu

The singer and his seeking

2011-09-22T12:29:00.002+05:30

The monograph on Mallikarjun Mansur takes you through his life and times

At a time where riches and glamour matter, and destination is more important than process, the story of Mallikarjun Mansur sounds bizarre. The rigour and austerity with which the legendary maestro of Jaipur-Atrauli gharana earned his music in the gruelling, uncompromising akhadas of the great masters is surely not a tale from our times. Toiling to seek individual expression in the lessons imparted by his great gurus remained Mansur’s pursuit for most part of his life; even the concert stage did not matter to him.

P.V. Vivekananda, in his monograph on Pandit Mallikarjun Mansur in the Vyakti Chitra Maale series of Vasanta Prakashana, recalls how a critic of those times had expressed his wonder at Mansur’s devotional surrender to music. “There is such clamour to present their music before a learned audience, but this master from the South remains cocooned in his own world of music,” the critic is said to have remarked. Mansur, for whom music was a personal act of faith, was content to sing in his puja room.

Full report here Hindu

Imran Khan's book recalled in India

2011-09-22T00:30:00.000+05:30

Pakistani cricketer-turned-politician Imran Khan's new book has become the latest publication to trip over the cartographic tangle of the India-Pakistan border.

Publisher Random House has recalled all advance copies of the book in India and delayed its release here due to errors in a map of the two countries at the time of the Partition, which wrongly showed Pakistan-occupied Kashmir shaded in the same colour as that of Pakistan.

Titled Pakistan: A Personal History, the book was launched in the United Kingdom over the weekend, but was scheduled to be released in Indian bookshops on Wednesday. Advance copies had already been sent to the media for review. However, on the scheduled date of release, Random House recalled the 30-odd advance copies, reportedly due to the errors in the map.

Sources at the publishing house say the book is now likely to be released next week after the offending pages are replaced with a map that India considers accurate.

Full report here Hindu

Taseer on Partition and Pak violence

2011-09-21T21:39:00.005+05:30

Few people of Aatish Taseer’s generation have experienced Partition as much as he has. For the majority, on either side of the India-Pakistan border, it survives as a defining political rivalry. For some, with its tales of migration and loss, it is a painful episode in the family’s history. But for the half-Pakistani author, who was brought up in New Delhi by his Sikh mother, the Partition of 1947 was a lot more than that.

For Mr. Taseer, now 30, the relationship with his father had everything to do with Partition and the enmity it cemented. His father was Salman Taseer, the former governor of Pakistan’s Punjab province who was killed by an Islamic extremist, his own bodyguard, in January.

For the elder Taseer, who lived in Lahore with his Pakistani family, having an Indian connection – a son born from a short-lived relationship with an Indian woman and who called India his home – proved problematic for his political career.

Long before the assassination, this and disagreements on the nature of Pakistani society and politics, of which the younger Taseer was critical, strained relations between the two. By the time the governor of Punjab was killed, father and son were no longer on speaking terms.

Full report here WSJ blogs

Chetan Bhagat to endorse Huawei

2011-09-21T21:04:00.002+05:30

India's best-selling writer is entering unchartered territory, perhaps a first for any writer—the world of celebrity brand ambassadors. Chinese telecom equipment maker Huawei Technologies has roped in Chetan Bhagat as brand associate for its devices such as smartphones and tablets, a senior executive told ET.

"Chetan Bhagat is a youth icon and he has changed the dynamics of the publishing industry. Our endeavour is to bring highend technology at affordable prices. Our target audience and values are the same," Huawei Devices India President Victor Shan said. He refused to disclose the size of the deal.

Full report here Times of India

'Night Life of Trees'

2011-09-21T20:55:00.002+05:30

If there ever was a project that reclaimed "authenticity" and "innovation" from their present status of fluff-lined buzzwords and into a genuine ethos, it would be South Indian independent publisher Tara Books, who for the past 16 years has been giving voice to marginalized art and literature through a commune of artists, writers, and designers collaborating on remarkable handmade books.

Crafted by local artisans in their fair trade workshop in Chennai, the books are hand-bound and each page is painstakingly screen-printed by hand using traditional Indian dyes, whose fresh earthy scent gently oozes from the gorgeous pages of the finished book.

Full report here Atlantic

Kannada writer kicks up Jnanpith storm

2011-09-21T12:58:00.000+05:30

Karnataka is no stranger to controversy when it comes to awards. Be it the film awards or the Rajyotsava awards, controversy has always shadowed the announcement of awards in the state.

So it doesn’t come as a surprise that a controversy has erupted again, this time over Dr Chandrashekar Kambar being honoured with the prestigious Jnanpith award.

On Tuesday, amidst the euphoria, noted Kannada writer and journalist Patil Puttappa struck a jarring note in the Kannada literary world when he said Kambar did not deserve the award, which, in Puttapa’s view, should have gone to the “most deserving novelist SL Bhyrappa”.

Puttappa sees intense lobbying as the reason for Bhyrappa losing out to less deserving litterateurs like Kambar.

Full report here DNA

Goswami shifted to the ICU

2011-09-21T12:50:00.000+05:30

Jnanpith award-winning writer Mamoni Raisom Goswami has been shifted to the intensive care unit (ICU) of the Gauhati Medical College Hospital (GMCH) due to a lung infection.

Hospital sources said today Goswami's condition remained unchanged after she was shifted to the ICU from her special cabin the day before. The eminent Assamese writer was transferred to the ICU as a precautionary measure after the doctors treating her diagnosed a lung infection, the sources said.

Asserting there was no immediate cause for concern, they said her condition was being monitored round the clock by a team of doctors.Goswami (68) would be shifted back to her cabin in the GMCH as soon as her condition improved, the sources added.Goswami has been undergoing treatment in the hospital since July last when she was brought back here from Medanta Medicity Hospital, Gurgaon.

Full report here IBNLive

Guv congratulates Shukla for Jnanpith

2011-09-21T12:46:00.000+05:30

Uttar Pradesh Governor B L Joshi today congratulated noted Hindi litterateur Shrilal Shukla on being chosen for the Jnanpith Award - country's highest literary honour. A Raj Bhawan release said that since Joshi was out of town, he could not go personally to greet Shukla.

The Governor's principal Secretary G Pattnaik, visited him and conveyed greetings from Joshi and presented a bouquet on behalf of the Governor. Shukla, born in 1925 in Uttar Pradesh, is an eminent novelist and a satirist whose works threw light on the falling moral values of the Indian society in the post independence era.

His noted works include Raag Darbari, Makaan, Sooni Ghaati Ka Sooraj, Pehla Padaav, Agyatvas and Bisrampur Ka Sant. He is winner of several awards which included Sahitya Akademi Award and Vyas Sammaan. In 2008, he was awarded the Padma Bhushan for his contribution to Indian literature and culture. The announcement to confer Jnanpith Award for the year 2009 on him was made yesterday.

Kambara stunned, delighted

2011-09-21T12:41:00.000+05:30

He may have received a number of awards, but when it came to the Jnanpith, he was unprepared and even disbelieving. A faulty phone meant he could not be reached by the awards committee and it was left to his son, Raju Kambara, to convey the news to him. But Chandrashekar Kambara remained sceptical, responding with: “Don’t believe what people tell you. They are probably pulling your leg. How can I get the Jnanpith, check again.”

But he had to believe it when television channels made the announcement. The modesty however, did not leave him. As always he attributes a lot of his success to the breaks he got early on in his life courtesy people like Krishnamurthy Puranik, a writer and teacher in Gokak, who conducted Sunday classes on literature to help bright students further their interest in literature.

Full report here Deccan Chronicle

In Brooklyn, writers consider ‘New India’

2011-09-20T21:46:00.001+05:30

The “New India” is

(a) A place where the pursuit of individual happiness is now possible

(b) A place that wants to be a part of history

(c) A place where the most common job category for women is “maid”

(d) A place that is not that different from the old India

Put your pencils down now. When Indian-origin writers get together to discuss the complexities of the new India, the answer, naturally, is (e) All of the above.

Siddhartha Deb and Bharati Mukherjee, who respectively have nonfiction and fiction books on India out this year, and Amitava Kumar, whose most recent book dealt with the fallout of the War on Terror, gathered on Sunday in Brooklyn to discuss the subcontinent as part of the New York City borough’s literary festival.

Full report here WSJ blogs

Om Books celebrates visual literature

2011-09-20T20:43:00.002+05:30

Om Books International is pleased to get on board award-winning film director, Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra to The Hindu Lit for Life. A three-day, two city conclave to appreciate the role of literature in our lives begins on September 25, 2011 in New Delhi, and will see the grand finale in Chennai on October 29 and 30 with the announcement of the winner of The Hindu Literary Prize for Best Fiction 2011.

Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra will be in conversation with one of the finest authors, journalists and bloggers of our times, Jai Arjun Singh on 'New Wave Cinema' and Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra's contribution to Indian cinema on September 25, 2011 between 12:30-1:20 PM.

Ajay Mago, publisher, Om Books International, says, "It is my privilege to be associated with The Hindu Lit for Life where one gets to know and understand the kind of writing talent we have in India. In this age of globalization, India has produced world-class writers across all genres. Cinema holds a very special place in my heart and I am equally delighted to get on board Mr. Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra to deliberate on the new trends of cinema and his contribution to Indian cinema."

Riya Travel & Tours, one of India's leading travel organizations and Audi, Gurgaon, a brand that's synonymous with automobiles are co-sponsors for the session on New Wave Cinema.

Shrilal Shukla, Kambar win Jnanpith

2011-09-20T12:37:00.001+05:30

Eminent Hindi authors Amar Kant and Shrilal Shukla were on Monday chosen for India’s highest literary honour Jnanpith Award for the year 2009 while renowned Kannada litterateur Chandrasekhar Kambar won it for the year 2010.

The selection board chaired by noted writer and Jnanpith award winner Dr. Sitakant Mahapatra made the selections for the 45th and 46th Jnanpith awards.

86-year-old Kant is a leading author whose famous novel Inhin Hathiyaron Se earned him Sahitya Akademi Award in 2007.

His short stories like Hatiyare, Dopahar ka Bhojan and Diptee Kalaktari have found place in the syllabi of several Indian Universities.

Shukla, born in 1925 in Uttar Pradesh, is an eminent novelist and a satirist whose works threw light on the falling moral values of the Indian society in the post-independence era.

His noted works include Raag Darbari, Makaan, Sooni Ghaati Ka Sooraj, Pehla Padaav, Agyatvas, and Bisrampur Ka Sant. He is winner of several awards which included Sahitya Akademi Award and Vyas Sammaan. In 2008, he was awarded the Padma Bhushan for his contribution to Indian literature and culture.

Full report here Hindu

Review: Last Man in Tower

2011-09-20T11:45:00.000+05:30

review

Last Man in Tower
Aravind Adiga
HarperCollins
Rs. 699
Pp 432
ISBN: 9789350290842
Hardcover

About the book
Ask any Bombaywallah about Tower A of the Vishram Co-operative Housing Society and you will be told that it is unimpeachably pucca. Despiteits location close to the airport and bordered by slums, it has been pucca for some fifty years. But then Bombay has changed in half a century not least its name – and the world in which Tower A was first built is giving way to a new city, a Mumbai of new development and new money; of wealthy Indians returning with fortunes made abroad.

When real estate developer Dharmen Shah offers to buy out the residents of Vishram Society, planning to use the site to build a luxury apartment complex, his offer is more than generous. Yet not everyone wants to leave; many of them have lived in Vishram for years, many of them are no longer young. But none can benefit from the offer unless all agree to sell. As tensions rise, one by one those who oppose the offer give in to the pressure of the majority, until only one man stands in the way of Shah’s luxury high-rise: Masterji, a retired schoolteacher, once the most respected man in the building. Shah is a dangerous man to refuse, but as the demolition deadline looms, Masterji’s neighbours – friends who have become enemies, acquaintances turned co-conspirators – may stop at nothing to score their payday. A suspense-filled story of money and power, luxury and deprivation; a rich tapestry peopled by unforgettable characters, not least of which is Bombay itself, Last Man in Tower opens up the hearts and minds of the inhabitants of a great city – ordinary people pushed to their limits in a place that knows none.

Reviews:
Full review here Guardian
If the residents of Tower A, Vishram Society, pride themselves on anything, it is their respectability – their "pucca" way of life in their "unimpeachably pucca" apartment building. Once pink, Tower A may now be a "rainwater-stained, fungus-licked grey"; it may not boast an uninterrupted supply of running water; it may sit amid the slums of Vakola, in the flight path of Mumbai's domestic airport; and it may be falling into a state of disrepair unchecked by its ineffectual secretary. But Vishram Society's virtues outweigh its failings; a model of neighbourliness and middle-class virtue, it brings together those of different backgrounds – originally built for a Catholic population, it admitted Hindus in the 1960s and "the better kind of Muslim" in the 80s – in harmonious testimony to the possibility of cooperative living. That, at least, is the theory, although Aravind Adiga's painful tragicomedy demolishes it more quickly than Dharmen Shah, his ruthless property developer, throws up his luxury redevelopments.

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Full review here Telegraph
In his first, Man Booker-winning novel, The White Tiger, Aravind Adiga captured the contradictions of the new India; in this, his third book, he goes further: they are quite literally the building blocks of his plot.

Last Man in Tower tells the story of a struggle for a slice of shining Mumbai real estate, bringing all of Adiga’s gifts for sharp social observation and mordant wit to the fore.
The “last man” of the title is Yogesh Murthy, or “Masterji” as he is affectionately known, a retired schoolteacher who gives top-up science classes in his spare time. He lives in a crumbling but “absolutely, unimpeachably pucca” middle-class block of flats in the Vishram Housing Society. The water only works for a couple of hours twice a day and each monsoon threatens to bring the roof in; but this is still an idyll representing what was once, itself, “new India”. Citizens of every religion rub along together in a way, Adiga writes, that would have made Nehru proud.

-o-o-o-Full review here Hindustan Times
There comes a point in Suketu Mehta’s Maximum City, a chronicle of his love-hate relationship with Bombay, where he takes Paul Theroux’s ‘Bombay-smells-of-money’ argument up by a notch to conclude, “Bombay is a city in which everything is on broad, public display. Nothing is hidden.” This simplistic observation stands apart from the rest of the book, which repeatedly asserts that you cannot describe Bombay in black and white, for beneath the surface of this seemingly monochromatic megalopolis lies a vibrant spectrum of greys.

This is where Aravind Adiga enters with his third book (and second novel) Last Man In Tower. If people, not steel and glass, impart Mehta’s florid and fragile Bombay its character, Adiga’s admiration for Mumbai forms the foundation of his latest novel.

“I was born in India, raised here and I love it here,” says Adiga. But that love didn’t go unopposed. In 2008, Adiga faced the ire of self-styled nationalists who read too much into the journalist-turned-author’s debut novel The White Tiger (which went on to win the Man Booker Prize), and involuntarily transformed him into a critic of India’s social and economic dichotomies. The story of the clash of an advancing India with its primitive self, where the eponymous character-narrator Balram Halwai’s “schematic and limited” vision of life was mistaken to be that of Adiga’s, exposed to the world a nation caught with its pants down, ‘loyalists’ felt.

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Full review here Financial Times
Land, today, has become the most valuable resource in India, lying at the dark confluence of politics, money, business and pure human avarice. With the economy growing at breakneck pace, the pressure for the acquisition and development of land has never been greater. Nowhere is this more obvious than in Mumbai, India’s commercial capital. As rents and property prices have skyrocketed, so has grown the public outcry against the city’s rapacious redevelopment. A veteran journalist lamented recently that every government in the region “has been the government of the builders, by the builders and for the builders”.

Aravind Adiga’s latest novel Last Man in Tower examines this sharpening crisis from the perspective of the residents of an old apartment block in north-west Mumbai. Vishram Society “is anchored like a dreadnought of middle-class respectability” in a neighbourhood populated by slums. Despite its peeling paint and 47-year-old brickwork, the grandmotherly building is spoken of with reverence because its residents “pay taxes, support charities, and vote in local and general elections”.

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Full review here DNA

Last Man In Tower is set in Tower A of the Vishram Co-operative Housing society in Vakola, Mumbai. It is an aging, run-down apartment building inhabited by a disappearing breed, the middle class. The occupants of Tower A are a closely knit bunch, having supported each other through many crises, trials and tragedies. Yet, when a builder approaches the society with a lucrative offer, friendships that have spanned decades start to fall apart.

The novel takes for inspiration a phenomenon that has swept every Indian metro in recent years: middle class families wooed by sky-rocketing property prices sell their modest homes and move into penthouses, swapping their scooters for cars, Godrej almaris for imported teak cupboards, thrifty habits for a lifestyle of affluence. In Adiga’s Last Man In Tower, a retired sixty-one year old science teacher, ‘Masterji’, is the last man to resist the builder’s offer.

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Full review here GQ India

When Aravind Adiga’s debut novel The White Tiger swept to victory in the Man Booker Prize, instead of throwing bouquets, Indian critics threw brickbats. A barrage of epithets, rather unfairly, rained in: stereotypical, dull, demeaning and tedious.

The writer’s third novel, Last Man in Tower, might not change their minds entirely. A taut, visceral tale based in Mumbai, this literary pot-boiler probes urban redevelopment, a festering sore in a city where land is scarce and invaluable. Adiga’s minutely detailed and almost voyeuristic insights into the lives of the dwellers of a cosmopolitan housing society are bigger than the plot, though.

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Full review here Washington Post

Funny, provocative and decadent: Aravind Adiga’s “Last Man in Tower” is the kind of novel that’s so richly insightful about business and character that it’s hard to know where to begin singing its praises.

That Adiga knows economics well should come as no surprise. After all, he worked as a financial journalist for Time magazine in India, and his first novel, “The White Tiger,” reveled in the darker consequences of a world turned flat. The story described a servant seduced by visions of wealth who murders his way out of poverty. It was as popular as it was controversial in India, and in Britain it captured the Man Booker Prize.

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Full review here Seattle Times

Aravind Adiga, winner of the Man Booker Prize for "The White Tiger," brings readers another look at an India at once simple and complex, as old as time and brand new.

The Mumbai residents of Tower A, Vishram Society, get along very well; Catholic, Muslim and Hindu sharing what was once a thoroughly first-class building. Their home is now short on light and running water, long on flaking, rainwater-stained walls and in need of the periodic services of the seven-kinds-of-vermin man.

Despite these shortcomings, Vishram dwellers are content, until they meet Dharmen Shah, an eminently successful and ruthless developer and his "left-hand man," the enforcer, Shanmugham.

Shah, who is not a well man, wants to ensure his legacy by building "The Shanghai," a modern high-rise, on the site of Tower A. He offers each tenant more money than any of them could amass in a lifetime, just to relocate. This offer is met with great rejoicing all around, except by one person: Yogesh A. Murthy, known as "Masterji," age 61, a retired schoolteacher and a recent widower.

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Full review here Independent

In Mumbai, property development is a serious business. Sometimes deadly serious.

Prime land is costly; human life is cheap. The Vishram Society is a middle-class housing co-operative based in a block to the city's east. The area has become intensely desirable, and property developer Dharmen Shah is determined to tear Vishram down and replace it with luxury apartments. Yet not all Vishram's residents are willing to be bought out, despite Shah's generous offers. Opposition centres around Yogesh Murthy, nicknamed "Masterji", an obdurate retired teacher and widower.

Aravind Adiga is most famous, of course, for his Booker prize-winning novel The White Tiger. It told the story of a downtrodden servant who was willing to go to shocking extremes to get the better of his masters. Subtle it wasn't, but the savage energy of its satire could not be ignored. Adiga's next volume, Between the Assassinations, was a collection of stories set in a fictitious southern Indian town, also focussing on poverty and corruption. In it, Adiga's facility with language came further to the fore in a series of evocative cameos that captured the town's stagnation.

Books on law woo students and advocates

2011-09-20T08:51:00.000+05:30

What is the difference between the Lokpal Bill and the Jan Lokpal Bill? What is Indian Penal Code? What does Article 1 of the Indian Constitution state? The answers to these above questions were found at a book stall put up in the Ninth Book Fair currently underway at the Moti Mahal Lawns, Lucknow.

Right from books dealing with the Constitution of India to the glossary of legal terms, all are available here. "We want to create legal awareness at the grass root level. People should know the basic laws and its implementation, so that no one fools them," said Paul Jacob of Indian Social Institute (ISI). In fact, this is the only stall in the fair that has books on law. Organisers have been trying to catch hold of other publishers since the past nine years, but have failed badly.

"We have been consistently trying to woo law publishers to participate in the fair. But they cite reasons such as deficit in sale," said Dev Raj Arora and Umesh Dhall, the organisers. This year, they approached Eastern Book Company and various publishers from Allahabad but all refused to come. Reason: These publishers have a fixed target, which they fail to get in the book fair.

Full report here Times of India

Shahryar awarded 44th jnanpith

2011-09-19T23:00:00.000+05:30

Justu-ju jiski thi usko toa na paaya hamne, is bahane se magar dekh li duniya hamne...” (What I longed for, was never mine, but on this pretext, I beheld the world...)”

These spine-tingling lines from the movie Umrao Jaan by Muzaffar Ali in 1981 still cut through to both heart and soul of a listener. The writer of these living lines — Akhlaq Mohammad Khan Shahryar — has unleashed his formidable power and control over words all through his life as an Urdu writer, a lyricist and an academician.

Mr Shahryar, who was awarded the 44th Jnanpith Award for the year 2008 in the national capital on Sunday by superstar Amitabh Bachchan, lyricist Gulzar and Cabinet minister M. Veerappa Moily, has maintained a conscious balance between tradition and modernity. “He expresses modern thought...with a new style but maintains a continuity of tradition.,” Dr Moily said. Mr Shahryar said, “Humans always try to maintain a balance between material and spiritual progress. Thank God we live in a world which at least as of now values emotions... there still exists a bond between humans. Art has a role to play in this world and I am glad to be part of it.” Born on June 16, 1936 in Anwala, Bareilly, he obtained his Ph.D in Urdu from AMU.

Full report here Asian Age

Chetan Bhagat on his new book

2011-09-19T21:17:00.001+05:30

Seven years ago an Indian investment banker penned a story of three friends at the Indian Institute of Technology, one of the country’s top schools. Soon after, the book became a best seller, hugely popular among India’s college crowd. Same thing happened a year later, when he published his second novel, this time on the life of call center employees .

The books were Five Point Someone (2004) and One Night @ the Call Center (2005). The former banker is Chetan Bhagat, an author credited with having helped extend the reach of literature to a broader audience in India. While some critics initially brushed off his success as mere fluke, his lasting popularity proved them wrong. Among the country’s teenagers and twenty-somethings, he is little short of a youth icon. Last year, he even made it in Time magazine’s list of “100 Most Influential People in the World.”

His books have gone on to become Bollywood hits, the most successful of which has been “3 Idiots,” a blockbuster inspired by his first novel starring Aamir Khan.

After tackling the sensitive topic of the Gujarat riots in The 3 Mistakes of My Life, (2008) and inter-communal marriages in his 2 States, Mr. Bhagat’s fifth book is set for release in October.

Full report here WSJ

Insights from an insider

2011-09-19T21:06:00.000+05:30

In his latest book, this banker questions the functioning of the corporate sector and believes the ends are becoming far more important than the means

Mumbai-based banker Ravi Subramanian’s third book, The Incredible Banker, will be released this week. The last in his trilogy of banking chronicles—after If God was a Banker (2007) and Devil in Pinstripes (2009—The Incredible Banker is set in a foreign bank and tells the story of two employees who get embroiled in “dirty” corporate politics and become scapegoats.

An alumnus of the Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore, Subramanian is the president and CEO (non-chit) of Shriram Group. He has worked with various multinational banks, including Citibank, ANZ Grindlays Bank and HSBC, in a career span of more than 18 years.

His next book project is likely to be more of a family-oriented story about three generations of a south Indian family. In a phone interview, Subramanian spoke to us about the existing corporate culture in India, where it is headed and why, and his new book. Edited excerpts:

What is ‘The Incredible Banker’ about?

This book, like my previous books, is set in a foreign bank. It’s about how two people, trying to be one-up, play with each other’s careers, and in the process, how the organization as a whole suffers. It’s also about how people external to the organization actually make use of such conflicts.

I’ve attempted to ask pertinent questions about the functioning of corporates in India. For instance, many MNCs in India have foreign CEOs. Do we really need them when we’re so rich with talent? I also want to put across the message that even if you have the best policies and processes in place, if the people behind those are compromised, then nothing would work.

About the storyline, the two protagonists are Deepak and Karan, who work in an American bank called Boston Global. They enter into a conflict with each other, try to settle old scores, Karan eventually leaves and joins a media firm that exposes the big scam. But finally Karan realizes that Deepak was innocent, yet suffered as a consequence of the exposé.

Full interview here Mint

Jnanpith presented to Shaheryar

2011-09-19T20:56:00.002+05:30

Legendary Urdu poet and academician Prof Shaheryar was on Sunday presented India's highest literary honour — the Jnanpith Award — for the year 2008.

Presenting the award, Bollywood actor Amitabh Bachchan said, "Like Rahi Massom Raza, Shaheryar also believed in breaking the imaginary wall between Hindi and Urdu. He is a real mascot of Hindi-Urdu culture."

In the form of songs in 'Fasle', 'Anjuman', 'Gaman' and 'Umrao Jaan', Shaheryar has given unique gift to the film industry, Bachchan said. "Today I feel honoured because I got the opportunity to give this prize to Shaheryar sahab," the veteran actor said.

Full report here Times of India

Hitting the bull's eye

2011-09-17T21:22:00.000+05:30

Chetan Bhagat seems like a guy you can hang out with. He's quick with a joke, is refreshingly honest, and has a sincerity that makes him hard to miss. Don't be fooled by his light-hearted banter, his casual choice of words; underneath this animated 37-year old, lies a revolutionary and a rebel who broke the rule of the publishing industry - a million copy sold was almost unheard of before him; and changed the game of Indian literature - he was a techie and an investment banker before he took to writing books. In his own words, he'll "never win a Man's Booker Prize," but he'll always be a loved by a million readers. He prophases change and seems driven enough to bring one himself. He's fearless and flamboyant all at once. Here's more on the high octane Q&A session at the India Today Mind Rocks Youth Summit 2011.

Chetan Bhagat is often known to be marketing-driven person, which leads to better sales of his novels. Do you agree?
I have always had a fondness for marketing as a profession and a discipline. In fact, India has a long way to go when it comes to marketing its products: say, tourism. But then again, it's not just about advertising, promotions, and the frills; it's most importantly about the product. It's that what you're selling. I don't have a marketing budget; I launch my book at a shopping mall. My marketing starts and ends with the book. My sales force is my readers.

Full report here India Today

Likeable in some ways

2011-09-16T21:56:00.001+05:30

The goodness of the good Indian girl is a badge of sorts. Or, as the cover of Annie Zaidi and Smriti Ravindra’s The Bad Boy’s Guide to the Good Indian Girl suggests, a tacky sparkly medallion. As the authors emphasize in their introduction, “good” here “does not mean the opposite of bad”; merely the set of behaviour considered desirable in an Indian girl.

What Zaidi and Ravindra explore in this collection of loosely connected (several characters and names appear in more than one) stories is not the oppressive nature of this set of desirable qualities, but the ways in which women can transgress them and still retain the Good Indian Girl (or GIG) tag. The result is a book of surprisingly subversive tales in which girls interact with men, climb down rope ladders (“BIG Girls”), flirt and draw back (“Strangers”), cut themselves (“Out of Here”), are nervous and afraid around men but simultaneously willing to play along (“Finger Play”) and manipulate their perceived goodness for their own ends (“Daddy’s Girls”). They are less about emphasizing the restrictions placed on Indian women than they are about how women use and test them. The “GIGs” in these stories have agency and they use it.

Full review here Mint

Elegant but limited

2011-09-16T21:32:00.000+05:30

Aatish Taseer’s latest novel, Noon, despite being a slim and incredibly easy book to read, is not an easy one to describe. It is composed of four unequal parts, each longer than the last, with a prologue and epilogue. All the sections are bound together by the presence of Rehan Tabassum, the child of an Indian Sikh woman and a Pakistani Muslim father (similar to Taseer’s own life), although some sections are from his first-person perspective, and others from a third-person perspective.

Through the four stories of Noon, a reader follows Rehan from his early childhood all the way to the present day. A reader is walked through an evolving, triangular relationship between Rehan, his mother and his grandmother; the changing social dynamics between India’s new business elite and the decay of its old, compromised feudal lords; an investigation into a robbery; and finally the power play within a politically and economically powerful family in Pakistan. Closely observed, and finely told, the stories have atmosphere and resonance.

Full report here Mint

The algebra of infinite crises

2011-09-16T21:12:00.000+05:30

Why has DC Comics restarted its storylines? A comics nerd explains why ‘The Man of Steel’ is getting a suit of armour

For the last three months, Internet users everywhere had their newsfeeds bombarded with articles which read like The Onion mated awkwardly with MAD magazine, producing a baby obsessed with superhero fashion.

Normals among these readers wondered incredulously about the sudden flood of worldwide interest in whether Wonder Woman needs pants or Superman rocks his briefs.

But nerds knew what was coming. Boy, did we know. You see, it’s happened three times in the last 25 years. Only this time, they’re serious. DC Comics has destroyed the universe. Again.

Full report here Mint

Flipkart moves fast

2011-09-15T20:10:00.000+05:30

Several months ago, when Prabhu Kumar could not find a book he wanted in bookstores here, he found it online at Amazon.com for $10. But he had to pay more than $9 in fees to have Amazon ship it to him.

Kumar, a software programmer, said he would not be doing that again. He now shops on India's answer to Amazon - FlipKart.com - which delivers books, phones and other items in as little as 24 hours at no extra cost. Kumar doesn't have to pay FlipKart a single rupee until a courier bearing his books arrives at his door. He can then hand over cash or a credit card.

"I think it perfectly fits the Indian mentality," Kumar.

While dozens of electronic commerce firms have recently sprung up to capitalize on India's growing Internet use, they have a problem. Indians are not yet comfortable with shopping on the Web. Many of them remain unwilling to use credit cards online. So the Indian retailers have gone to great lengths to gain customers. Customers may pay in cash on delivery, and the company fields delivery squads to ensure shipments get to customers quickly.

Full report here Economic Times

A date with Tagore and his women

2011-09-15T18:43:00.000+05:30

Rabindranath Tagore - a poet, writer, playwright, composer and philosopher worshipped by millions - was also a man heavily influenced by the fascinating women who were part of his life.

“Gender and social issues in the works of Rabindranath Tagore” was the topic of discussion at a function organised here on Wednesday by the All-India Women's Conference to commemorate the 150th birth anniversary of the Nobel laureate. Lok Sabha member and chief guest Girija Vyas inaugurated the event with singer Jayati Ghosh setting the mood for the rest of the day.

“Tagore grew up with his 14 siblings in his family's Jorasanko mansion, his family were extremely rich upper-caste Pirali Brahmins and the women who married into the family were often very young, uneducated and overwhelmed by the intellectual and social superiority of the Tagore household but almost all of them educated themselves to be worthy and equal of the Tagore men,” said Ms. Aruna Chakravarti who talked in detail about the women who looked after Tagore in his early life and formed the bridges to his later success.

Full report here Hindu

Writer with a royal lineage

2011-09-15T15:47:00.002+05:30

Princess Aswathi Thirunal Gouri Lakshmi Bayi has authored books on the Padmanabha Swamy and Travancore temples, culture and heritage.

The palatial building, with its gigantic pillars and imposing veranda, lies in the heart of Adyar. In a city whose physical and cultural contours are changing every hour, the structure, showing signs of age, is a reminder of a past era. I am here at the palace to interview Princess Aswathi Thirunal Gouri Lakshmi Bayi, niece of the late Maharaja Chithira Thirunal Rama Varma and his brother, Sri Uthradom Thirunal Marthanda Varma, the present head of the royal House of Travancore.

Sri Marthanda Varma won widespread admiration for renouncing the claim of the royal family to the enormous riches discovered recently in the Sri Padmanabha Swamy temple in Thiruvananthapuram. The Travancore rulers, the hereditary trustees of the temple, have considered themselves as rulers on behalf of the Lord for hundreds of years.

Full report here Hindu

Beaning the bean counter

2011-09-15T15:22:00.000+05:30

Have you ever been tempted to strangle your CFO? Desist. Instead ask your CFO to read Everything You Know About Business is Wrong and to start practising it. If he fails to do either, you can justifiably strangle him.

Alastair Dryburgh, of course, intends his book for a general corporate audience – not just for people in Finance – but his own training as a chartered accountant, followed by years of experience in the commercial functions, makes him particularly adept at identifying the sclerosis a traditional accounting mindset can bring to the best of organisations. Dryburgh displays a practitioner’s insight when he identifies the tension that exists between a Finance Director’s job as Head of Control and Compliance (“Produce the basic accounts. Make sure customers pay when they should. Prevent people spending money they shouldn’t …”) and a Finance Director’s job as a Business Partner (“How can I help this organisation make more money?”). Most of the shibboleths Dryburgh trashes are associated with atavistic accountants but that does not prevent his treatment from being amusing and instructive for the general business reader.

Take, for instance, the first commandment of the accountant’s Decalogue: to cut costs. Dryburgh demonstrates, with logic and illustrations, why making a religion of cost-cutting is not only an inadequate answer to the fundamental question of how to improve profits, but is in fact frequently counterproductive for meeting the goal of raising profits. As Dryburgh puts it, “… getting rid of the corporate jet is … cost saving. Reducing capital expenditure or research and development is sacrificing the future of the company to the immediate short term.”

Full report here Business Standard

R.K. Narayan's family to be compensated

2011-09-15T14:51:00.000+05:30

Family happy over move to declare house a heritage monument

R.K. Narayan's family has expressed happiness over the Karnataka government's decision to declare the late writer's house in Mysore a heritage monument, said Minister for Urban Development S. Suresh Kumar in a statement on Wednesday.

Narayan's granddaughter Bhuvaneswari Sreenivasamurthy and her husband K. Sreenivasamurthy called on the Minister in the Vidhana Soudha here.

“As they live in Chennai, they expressed their inability to maintain the house in Mysore,” the statement said.

Mr. Kumar said he assured the family that the government would offer them an alternative housing site in Mysore or compensate them monetarily, and a decision to this effect would be announced soon. The family and experts would be consulted when the building, to be named Malgudi, would be restored.

“The Minister was very cordial and promised that he would take all efforts to protect the legacy of my grandfather,” Ms. Sreenivasamurthy told The Hindu.

Full report here Hindu

Engrossed

2011-09-15T09:30:00.000+05:30

Of the things that unite South Asians, a love of words and an alacrity with language are often noted. While the book trade struggles in much of the world, Kathmandu is the latest city in the region to launch an annual literary festival, which begins on September 16th. Big-name international writers will be there, as well as dozens from Nepal’s own energetic literary scene. Several thousand Nepali bibliophiles, most of them young, are expected to attend three days of fizzing discussion.

The fashion for literary gatherings in South Asia spread from the Jaipur festival in India, founded on a shoestring in 2006 and now a huge international success. Pakistan, where the Karachi Literature Festival had its second outing this year, showcases relatively young but internationally liked authors. Bhutan, Galle in Sri Lanka, and Goa and Trivandrum in India have joined in. But a new annual festival in Srinagar, capital of Indian-controlled Kashmir, has just been postponed indefinitely after threats of violence and a perverse campaign by some authors who argued that it was wrong to talk about books in a place where liberties were curtailed.

Full report here Economist

Faiz was against class system: Shaam

2011-09-15T09:17:00.000+05:30

The second day of the international conference on Faiz Ahmed Faiz concluded here at Jinnah Medical and Dental College on Wednesday.

The proceedings were started with the recitation of Shah Abdul Latif Bhittai’s poetry by the mystics of shrines.

In the morning session speakers read out their papers on literary services of Faiz and eulogised his various roles besides being a poet, as a trade unionist, a versatile columnist and an editor of two newspapers.

The session was presided over by renowned journalist Mahmood Shaam. While addressing the session Shaam pointed out that Faiz was against class system.

Pakistan Institute of Labour Education and Research (PILER) Executive Director Karamat Ali said in his address that Faiz was the only true revolutionary poet of sub-continent. He continued that Faiz was a great preacher of world peace. He pointed out that despite abject poverty, illiteracy and militancy in India and Pakistan, both countries were in the race of making more and more nuclear weapons and missiles.

Full report here Daily Times

City writer bags Rajiv Gandhi Award

2011-09-15T09:01:00.000+05:30

The State has again a reason to rejoice as local talents are making a mark at the national level by dint of their achievements. City talent Amit Kumar has won the Rajiv Gandhi Award for his book Globalisation and India.

Kumar was given this prestigious award at the Vigyan Bhawan by the President of India, Pratibha Devisingh Patil on Wednesday. A resident of Ratu Road, Kumar wrote his book last year and it was published by Satyam Publishing House. In the book, the impact of globalisation on the country has been discussed from different angles. The advanced effects of globalisation can be better learnt by reading this book.

Amit was interested in writing since childhood. He studied in Shradhanand Bal Mandir. Amit is now posted in a Uttar Pradesh college as lecturer.

Full report here Pioneer

‘I’m not looking for revenge’

2011-09-15T08:58:00.000+05:30

After meeting chief minister Omar Abdullah on Wednesday, the journalist and writer David Devadas told this newspaper, “I’m not looking for revenge.”

All he wanted is that there should be a system of justice working in the state. “That may be idealistic, but that is what one aspires for,” he added. In a letter to the CM, Mr Devdas has accused the police of abusing and badly beating him up after a mix-up at peak traffic hour on September 5.

In a letter to the Chief Justice of India, Mr Devdas narrated his first hand experience at the hands of the J&K police and spoke of “attempts to fabricate the sequence of events that led to my being bodily battered”. He also wrote, “I now fear for my life."

The chief minister has asked him to remain in Kashmir and continue his work. “He said he was sorry about what had happened to me and assured me that action would be taken against the erring police personnel.”

Full report here Asian Age

Tricity celebrates Hindi Diwas

2011-09-15T06:21:00.000+05:30

Hindi Diwas was celebrated in some parts of the city on Wednesday. Various competitions were held on the occasion of the Hindi Diwas to promote the use of Hindi language among people.

State Bank of India
The Chandigarh head unit of State Bank of India celebrated Hindi Diwas on Wednesday by organising a Hindi Shabdavli competition. More than 70 staff members participated in it. Pradip Rai, Deputy General Manager of the Sector 17 branch presided over the programme.”

Hindi is a very simple and accommodating language because it can adopt the words of other languages easily,” said Pradip Rai.

Full report here Indian Express

UN honours Tagore, Neruda, Cesaire

2011-09-15T04:08:00.000+05:30

The top UN cultural body Unesco on Tuesday launched a programme honouring India's Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore and two other humanist poets, Pablo Neruda and Aim Cesaire.

Each of the three poets, in his own way, carried high the standard of humanist values, said the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (Unesco).

Beyond their different geographic, social and political contexts, Tagore, a Bengali poet at the time that India was under British rule, Chile's Neruda and Cesaire - from the French Caribbean island of Guadeloupe - showed a commitment to speaking for the voiceless, it said.

Full report here Economic Times

The perfect ode to Gurudev

2011-09-15T01:14:00.000+05:30

You make me endless, such is your pleasure” (Translation from Tagore’s Gitanjali, Poem 1) To pay a painstaking tribute to Gurudev Rabidranath Tagore on his 150th birth anniversary celebration, Chennai-based ace Bharatnatyam danseuse Anita Ratnam choreographs an aesthetically designed offering, woven from the bard’s casket of creative gems. Recently premiered at Kolkata’s well-known G.D.Birla Sabhaghar auditorium, Ratnam’s rendition drew critical acclaim and accolades. Responding to her performance titled Handful of Dust, the internationally renowned dancer shares: “This humble homage on Gurudev is one in a million such compositions, compiled by many other Indian artistes, who too have been deeply touched, inspired and moved by Tagore’s treasure-trove of works at some point of time or the other. As for me, I’ve always admired his multitude of works till the present moment.”

Having grown up in South India, outside the cauldron of Bengal (where Tagore’s glory is still given a deified status and the man himself, revered as a sacrosanct figure), the dancer feels that the Nobel Laureate’s rich magnum opuses and timeless verses still need an expansive amount of translation to make it more accessible to the rest of the country. “Other provinces at large are still left deprived of reading Tagore’s repertoire in parts, let alone in its entirety. Agreed it is not humanly possible to grasp a versatile genius’s depth of creations and understand its underlying essence in a lifetime. But at least we can try to scratch the surface, which becomes inescapably unwieldy in want of extensive interpretations and paraphrased versions of his volumes of literary texts,” she says. “After the lift-up of a rigid copyright act, things however, seem to breathe easy and give way to leniency from the erstwhile straight-jacketed codes and set parameters to be followed. Even my fellow Bengali artiste friends, scholars and connoisseurs hailing from this part of the world have repeatedly rued over the strict possession of the Tagorean legacy, which had noticeably remained confined within a clique of handful few staunch custodians. Now hopefully, the trend is changing to augur well for a better future. And to welcome a rewarding tomorrow, the next-gen posterity has to possibly carry forth the Tagorean heritage amidst contemporary developments, progressive experiments and futuristic evolutions,” she opines with a note of observation. At the formal request of the cultural wing of the Union government, Ratnam gave her consent to dedicate her act in honour of the bard.

Full report here Asian Age

Iceland comes calling to Delhi

2011-09-14T21:28:00.001+05:30

This week, get a glimpse of the culture of Iceland at an ongoing festival. On at the Max Mueller Bhavan is an exhibition of Icelandic literature and artwork, movies and also an installation by India-based artist and architect Gudjon Bjarnason, a native of Iceland.

Bjarnason, who divides his time between Puducherry, Bangalore, Reykjavik (capital of Iceland) and New York, works for three leading fashion houses in India and designs commercial buildings in southern India. He blends his Indian sensibilities and 20 years of experience in American and Nordic art to create sculptures, abstract drawings and digital prints.

“I like India. It is a marvel of an inspiration. I like the way art and architecture come together in India,” says Bjarnason. As for his artwork, he says, “I use at least seven different kinds of explosives like C4, nitrate-based explosives and Flex-X to blast and distort metals to create new forms that represent chaos.”

Full report here Hindustan Times

DSC Prize 2012 Longlist announced

2011-09-14T21:26:00.003+05:30

The longlist for the DSC Prize for South Asian Literature for 2010 was announced in Delhi today. There are 16 books on the list.

The list has both established as well debut novelists. There are also three translated entries. The five member jury each selected three works, revealed jury member Ira Pande. She said the list includes works from South Asia's cultural diversities as well as books that reflect urban as well as rural landscapes. There are two books on Afghanistan.

The shortlist will be announced on October 24 at the Shakespeare Globe in London, while the $50,000 prize will be given during the Jaipur Literature Festival in January 2012.

"I am delighted that the DSC Prize is able to provide a global platform to recognize such fine works and present them to a wider audience," Manhad Narula of DSC said.

The longlist:
Omair Ahmad: Jimmy the Terrorist (Hamish Hamilton/Penguin India)
U.R. Ananthamurthy: Bharathipura ( Oxford University Press, India, Translated by Susheela Punitha)
Chandrakanta: A Street in Srinagar (Zubaan Books, India, Translated by Manisha Chaudhry)
Siddharth Chowdhury: Day Scholar (Picador/Pan Macmillan, India)
Kishwar Desai: Witness the Night (HarperCollins/HarperCollins-India)
Namita Devidayal: Aftertaste (Random House, India)
Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni: One Amazing Thing (Hamish Hamilton/Penguin India)
Manu Joseph: Serious Men (Fourth Estate/HarperCollins, India)
Usha K.R: Monkey-man (Penguin/Penguin India)
Shehan Karunatilaka: Chinaman (Random House, India)
Tabish Khair: The Thing About Thugs (Fourth Estate/HarperCollins-India)
Jill McGivering: The Last Kestrel (Blue Door/HarperCollins-UK)
Kavery Nambisan: The Story that Must Not Be Told (Viking/Penguin India)
Atiq Rahimi: The Patience Stone (Chatto & Windus/Random House-UK, Translated by Polly McLean)
Kalpish Ratna: The Quarantine Papers (HarperCollins-India)
Samrat Upadhyay: Buddha's Orphan (Rupa Publications, India)

Fear & loathing in Bhutto’s land

2011-09-14T21:18:00.000+05:30

Blood, sword and suffering are the heartbeat of Fatima Bhutto’s literary soul. And it was fear that propelled her poetry, says the heir to Pakistan’s tragedy-scarred Bhutto family. An accomplished poet, Fatima, 29, captures love, loss and the solitude of her circumstances in her verses.

“I have not written poetry for a very long time, but poetry like prose is ultimately a means of expressing what seems difficult otherwise,” Fatima, who will be in India for the Kovalam Literary Festival (October 1-2), said in an email interview from Karachi.

“Kovalam will be my first visit to south India. And I’m looking forward to seeing more of the country and interacting with new audiences and opening bridges between our cities and stories.”

She won’t be reading out just from her poetry. Fatima has authored Whispers of the Desert, an anthology of poetry, as well as 08.50 am, an account of the 2005 Kashmir earthquake, and Songs of Blood and Sword, a searing document of the turbulence that had ripped her family apart on her native turf.

Born in 1982 in Kabul to Murtaza Bhutto, the son of former Prime Minister Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, Fatima carries the illustrious and violent lineage on her young shoulders. Her grandfather, Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, was hanged to death in 1979. In 1996, Fatima’s father Murtaza was gunned down in Karachi by the police during the tenure of “aunt” Benazir Bhutto. Eleven years later, Benazir Bhutto met with a similar fate in Rawalpindi in 2007 when she was shot dead at a rally.

Full report here Asian Age

Writers, teachers hail Hindi on its day

2011-09-14T20:37:00.001+05:30

Hindi Diwas reminds citizens that they should have full regards for their mother tongue, said Hindi writer and Padmshree awardee Giriraj Kishore, while talking to TOI on Wednesday, which was celebrated as Hindi Diwas. He added that languages cannot be made 'alive' by using techniques or methods as they reside in people's heart and soul.

Kishore, also a former IIT registrar, added, "No other language in this world, except Hindi, has a day attributed to it. So Indian must pay their tributes to this language on Hindi Diwas."

On September 14, 1949, Hindi in Devnagari script was adopted as the official language of the country.

Renowned Hindi author Badri Narain Tiwari said, " Ban Ki Moon had said that Hindi is a language of harmony and understanding during the 8th World Hindi Conference on Hindi at United Nation headquarters in New York. He had surprised many by inaugurating the ceremony with 'namaste! kya hal chal hai'. Moreover, except Atal Bihari Vajpayee, no other Indian leader ever used Hindi while representing India, internationally. I want to ask why?"

Full report here Times of India

S&S plans a unique marketing strategy

2011-09-14T20:36:00.001+05:30

Simon & Schuster, a global leader in the field of general interest publishing, providing consumers worldwide with a diverse range of quality books across a wide variety of genres and formats. It is the publishing operation of CBS Corporation, one of the world’s premier media companies.

S&S Director of Sales and Marketing, Rahul Srivastava spoke to IBNLive about the company, its strategy and future course of plan in India.

Which segments of the market is S&S targeting? With what kind of books?
Our target readership will be the family as we offer many different subject categories and want to market and promote the same. Our niche is certainly business, non-fiction and self help books.

Who are the marquee authors on the list? And who are the best-selling ones?
We will begin our operations with three of our best-selling authors, Stephen R Covey – The Third Alternative, Irshad Manji – Allah, liberty and love and Brendon Burchard’s Millionaire Messenger (self-published best seller in the USA)

Full interview here IBNLive

Anita Rau Badami: The book tour

2011-09-14T20:35:00.000+05:30

Anita Rau Badami is the author of Tamarind Mem, The Hero’s Walk, Can You Hear The Nightbird Call?, and, most recently, Tell It To The Trees. Born in India, she now calls Montreal home. Badami will be guest editing The Afterword all this week.

After spending the last 100 years inside my small cave of a room, buried under paper, unwashed dishes from way-past-midnight snacks, books, pine-cones, shells, paint rags, pebbles, clothes, jars of dead flowers, seed catalogues, and other objects that are so furry with dust I can no longer identify them, I have become a snarling, shaggy grouch. My mother has stopped phoning me because I never respond, my sister has given up on leaving snippy messages asking whether I remember her existence or whether I still exist myself. I have been absent – from my life, this planet and real people. I live in pyjamas and my son’s discarded t-shirts eating whatever my long-suffering husband leaves outside my door. I am rarely seen outside the house and the occasional time when I emerge blinking in the bright light of day my neighbour and once-upon-a-time close friend cannot recognize me.

Full report here National Post

Indians dominate DSC Prize Longlist

2011-09-14T15:30:00.002+05:30

Works of 13 Indian authors, including a writer duo, figure in the longlist of 16 titles for the 2012 DSC Prize for South Asian Literature announced today.

Manhad Narula, Ira Pande and Surina Narula at the
announcement of the DSC Prize

The longlist for the USD 50,000 award was chosen from 52 entries which were reviewed by a five-member jury comprising chairperson Ira Pande, Alastair Niven (UK), Fakrul Alam (Bangladesh), Faiza S Khan (Pakistan) and Marie Brenner (US).

The longlisted books include an interesting mix of established as well debut novelists, along with three translated entries, the jury said.

Among the prominent Indian authors longlisted for their works are Manu Joseph (Serious Men), Usha K R (Monkey-man), Tabish Khair (The Thing About Thugs) and Kishwar Desai (Witness the Night).

Commenting on the longlist, Pande said, "This list is an interesting mix of 16 titles chosen after a careful consideration of various styles, languages and subject matter. It reflects the best of the South Asian literary tradition - a wide landscape of rural and urban life, intricate rituals of story-telling and an indication of its evolving form.

"This is the East, seen as it is by some of the most promising novelists of Nepal, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Pakistan and India, and as it appears to those who live elsewhere."

Full report here Outlook

Eng version of Punjabi book out in Canada

2011-09-14T15:15:00.000+05:30

There is good news for all those wanting to read Punjabi short stories translated into English.

A collection of Punjabi short stories written by Dr Harshinder Kaur, deputy medical superintendent of Government Rajindera Hospital in Patiala, have been rewritten in English by a Canadian writer, Ajmer Rode.

The book titled - It happens in India - was released on September 11 by Sikh scholar Dr Harjinder Singh Dilgeer during a function at Vancouver. The stories depict atrocities inflicted on women in various parts of Punjab.

Full report here Times of India

A time to scribble and revel

2011-09-14T14:28:00.002+05:30

Perhaps nowhere else, for now, is the printed word in such rude health as in South Asia. The region’s writers have much to cheer. Readers have a raging appetite for text on a page, and they are happy to spend money for it. (Most gratifying, at least for a journalist, is to see the old-fashioned newspaper industry flourish as literacy levels rise and a middle class grows.) Advertisers and sponsors are hungry to reach book readers, reckoning that they are among the region’s wealthier and better educated consumers. As a result, cash-rich banks, insurance and construction companies, among others, fall over each other to stump up for literary festivals and book prizes.

Take the announcement today that 16 novelists have been put on a prize longlist for writing on South Asia. DSC, a big Indian building firm, sponsors the prize and is also part of the largest annual literary festival in India, in Jaipur, which burst at the seams with 200 authors and nearly 100,000 visitors this January. The firm is also involved in a South Asia writing festival that will be held soon in London. This is only the second year of the DSC prize, so it hardly has the pedigree of the Man Booker one, say, which has been around for over four decades. But measure it in hard cash—$50,000 for the DSC award, ₤50,000 for the Booker—the South Asian award starts to look serious.

Full report here Economist blogs

Vikas Swarup at Reykajvik Literary Festival

2011-09-14T10:12:00.002+05:30

The Indian novelist Vikas Swarup, author of Six Suspects and Q & A, which was adapted into the multiple Oscar-winning movie Slumdog Millionaire, appeared at the Nordic House in Iceland last week as part of the Reykjavik International Literary Festival 2011.

Swarup was interviewed by Icelandic journalist Petur Blondal in front of an intimate crowd in the main conference and meeting room at the Nordic House. In the interview, Swarup talked about Dharavi on the outskirts of Mumbai in India, which is the largest slum in the world, and how his work is influenced by the inspiring spirit of the people who live there. The Indian author also gave readings from both of his novels; Six Servants, and Q & A.

Full report here IceNews

Desai debuts as novella writer

2011-09-14T10:03:00.000+05:30

In one of the finest works of her career, Anita Desai's latest book, The Artist of Disappearance, coming out later this year, comprising three novellas, her first offering after seven years since The Zigzag Way, captures with pervasive intensity the slow debilitation of ambition and spirit of its characters, and their isolation, to the point of self-flagellation of mind, memory and existence.

Desai, 74, has had success in writing both short stories and novels in a career that spans over six decades now. She published her first story when she was nine years old. Two of her novels, Clear Light of Day published in 1980, and In Custody in 1984, were nominated for the Booker Awards for Fiction, now known as the Man Booker Award.

Her collection of short stories, "Fasting, Feasting", in 1999, also got short-listed for the same award. But it is perhaps in the art of the novella, that strange depth of the literary canyon where it is difficult to fathom if the echo from below has reached the top or not, that Desai is strikingly brilliant in capturing with intricate detail and the right kind of pace the life of her characters and plots, exploring deftly various nuances of tedium, isolation and eccentricities, without satiating or saturating too early.

Full report here International Business Times

Author mixes disaster, diversity in novel

2011-09-14T09:58:00.002+05:30

The year 2005 will forever be remembered by residents of the Gulf Coast as the year of natural disasters. Shortly after Hurricane Katrina had caused colossal damage to New Orleans, many Houston residents participated in a massive and chaotic evacuation as Hurricane Rita threatened to repeat Katrina’s destruction.

Sugar Land resident and author Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni was one of the unlucky few who participated in the mass exodus. While caught up in the hours of stop-and-go traffic, Divakaruni paid special attention to the way people were interacting, both good and bad. Surprised by the humanity and willingness of strangers to help others, Divakaruni used the events as inspiration for her latest novel, One Amazing Thing.

“I started thinking about being in the whole crisis situation, which you couldn’t control. A crisis situation where you especially feel trapped with a group of people you don’t know,” Divakaruni said. “What happens to us in such situations? Is it possible to rise above our fear and panic and create a community to help each other?”

Full report here Yourfortbendnews

Dalit movement & literary phenomenon

2011-09-14T09:43:00.000+05:30

In 2004, the French Institute of Pondicherry provided a platform for about a dozen Dalit writers in Tamil to reflect on their experiences in the Dalit literary movement. What they said on the occasion, along with extracts from their writings, were published later. And the book under review is an English translation of that publication. David C. Buck, an American academic who has translated some medieval Tamil texts, has joined the editor of the Tamil volume, Kannan M., in this venture.

The Dalit movement had a late start in Tamil Nadu, when compared to Maharashtra and Karnataka, largely because of the dynamics of the non-Brahmin Dravidian movement. It was only in the early 1990s — in the wake of the Mandal–Masjid developments, and in the context of Ambedkar centenary and the break-up of the Soviet Union and its impact on the Left movement — that the Dalit movement first manifested itself as a literary phenomenon in Tamil Nadu.

Full report here Hindu

Lit fests bloom as interest grows among sponsors

2011-09-13T22:09:00.000+05:30

The next four months will see at least 10 major literary festivals; realty firms, hospitality sector, banks in fray

Literature festivals used to be a niche pursuit—quiet little getaways where authors could meet some of their more ardent readers. No longer. The Jaipur Literature Festival in January, India’s biggest such event, saw nearly 100,000 visitors over five days. With more people attending such events, publishing companies are seeing them as brand-building platforms, reason enough for the corporate sector to show greater interest.

The indefinite postponement of Harud—The Autumn Festival of Literature, which was scheduled to be held in Srinagar this month, was an exception and more to do with politics than anything else.

Literature festivals have proliferated in India, and media houses are also entering the field. Both Bennett, Coleman and Co. Ltd (BCCL) and Kasturi and Sons Ltd, publishers of The Times of India (TOI) and The Hindu, respectively, will host literature festivals in the next few months.

The Hindu’s festival, Lit for Life, will be held in Delhi and Chennai for a day each in September and October, respectively, with 50-60 delegates, including authors and guests. BCCL’s Mumbai Fully Booked: TOI Literary Carnival will be held at the city’s Mehboob Studios on 2-4 December.

Full report here Mint

Reforms: the unfinished agenda

2011-09-13T21:39:00.008+05:30

This book inspires some confidence about India's capacity to face the present worrisome phase

Growth and Finance:
Essays in Honour of
C. Rangarajan;
Edited by Sameer Kochhar
Academic Foundation
Rs. 1095

India is now reckoned among the fastest growing economies in the world. The economic reforms initiated after the mid-1980s helped India to break through the ‘Hindu rate of growth' of about 3 per cent that prevailed in the earlier decades. Alongside the faster rate of growth, there has been diversification of the economy — from agriculture to industry and services — and growing and pervasive global linkages.

The emerging context has some notable features that are favourable to sustaining fast growth. Exports and mounting foreign exchange reserves are supportive of growth. The demographic dividend offered by the changing age-distribution profile of the population holds an exciting prospect. However, at the moment, there are dark clouds on the horizon raising serious concerns. The United States and Europe are going through a turbulent phase and it has its own impact on the Indian economy. Experts warn of a slowdown in growth as a consequence of India's global linkages. The common man is already struggling to cope with the persisting high inflation rate. A slowdown in growth could impose further burdens which may well prove to be the proverbial ‘last straw'.

Full report here Hindu

Gays unwanted in Young Adult Books?

2011-09-13T21:05:00.002+05:30

When you think of the young adult books capturing the attention of America's adolescents and pre-teens, predominately-white, predominately-straight novels like the Twilight and Hunger Games series come to mind. In a post on Publishers Weekly's website, two writers argue that the reason most YA books don't include LGBT characters, especially ones of color, is because book agents don't have the balls to sell manuscripts with them.

Rachel Manija Brown, author of the memoir All the Fishes Come Home to Roost: An American Misfit in India, and Sherwood Smith, writer of the YA novel Crown Duel, say that fear is running the YA book industry. Brown and Smith wrote an unpublished novel together called Stranger, featuring a young Asian gay male character with a boyfriend.

"An agent from a major agency, one which represents a bestselling YA novel in the same genre as ours, called us," Brown and Smith write. "The agent offered to sign us on the condition that we make the gay character straight, or else remove his viewpoint and all references to his sexual orientation."

Full report here Advocate

Tagore gala begins in Spain with book

2011-09-13T20:32:00.000+05:30

Perhaps a historic wrong was set right when Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore reconnected to thousands of admirers in Spain - one of the few countries in Europe to which he had called off his visit - with a new book.

The compendium, 'Redescubriendo a Tagore (Rethinking Tagore)', was released on Monday. It is part of a larger project, Tagore in Spain, a celebration of his literature and performing arts in several cities in Spain and Costa Rica which begins this weekend.

It has been co-edited by Indranil Chakravarty, a professor of Film Appreciation at the Whistling Woods International Film Institute in Mumbai, and scholar S.P. Ganguly, professor of Spanish studies at the Jawaharlal Nehru University.

The editors said Tagore had remained popular in Spain despite his decline in popularity in the rest of the Western world after World War I, where he was seen as an Eastern mystical poet removed from the harsh realities of life.

Full report here Times of India

Veteran parliamentarian speaks his mind

2011-09-13T13:46:00.005+05:30

The volume covers Era Sezhiyan's 22-year period in Parliament that witnessed major political transformations

Parliament for People:
Speeches by Era Sezhiyan
Institute of Social Sciences,
Rs 1450

This collection of speeches by an eminent parliamentarian deserves notice not just because Parliament hits the headlines frequently these days, although mostly for wrong reasons. There are at least two other reasons why it should interest keen observers of the polity and politics of argumentative Indians.

The volume covers a 22-year period that witnessed major political transformations. Sezhiyan entered Parliament when the government was headed by Jawaharlal Nehru, a strong defender of the dignity of the institution. He served as an effective parliamentarian during the Prime Ministership of Lal Bahadur Shastri, Indira Gandhi, and Morarji Desai. He stepped into Parliament House in the year of the Sino-Indian conflict and made his exit just months before Indira Gandhi's assassination. And he was witness to the formation of the first non-Congress government in New Delhi and its ignominious, mid-term fall as well. The long years he spent in Parliament and the rich experience he gained make Sezhiyan, who is in his late 80s, eminently qualified to do what he has attempted: to produce a ‘biography' of sorts of the bicameral Parliament in the form of his recorded role as a remarkably articulate and rule-abiding member. He made his presence felt in both the Lok Sabha (1962-77) and the Rajya Sabha (1978-84), as a representative of the Dravida Munnetra Kazhgam and the Janata Party respectively.

Full report here Hindu

Entries called for Konkani poetry competition

2011-09-13T13:12:00.000+05:30

Kavita Trust that has been striving to promote Konkani poetry in all its form will be organizing All India Konkani Poetry Reading Competition in the months of October and November. The competition is open to all between the age group of 15 years to 30 years. Participants will get a chance to read their poetry or any one Konkani poem by another poet.

The competition will be held in two stages - in Mangalore and in Goa in October/ November. The competition that will be held in Mangalore is open to people from Karnataka and other states except Goa. The one that will be held in Goa is exclusively meant for Goans.

Participants will get one-and-a-half minute and a maximum of three minutes to read their poetry, a copy of which must be submitted to the organizers at the venue, with proof of age. The matter should be typed and must include the name of the poem and the poet, address, telephone number, age and e-mail ID.

Kavita Trust will not reimburse any expense borne by the competitors in the first stage. Ten competitors in each from Mangalore and Goa will be shortlisted for the finals that will be held during Kavita Fest which will be held at Moodubelle on January 8, 2012. The competitors who participate in the final stage will be reimbursed travel and accommodation charges.

Full report here Daijiworld

Humanity needs to change course

2011-09-13T09:54:00.004+05:30

The existential predicament of man is usually approached and analysed in two ways. The first is to examine the personal, social, political and economic circumstances that contribute to it and theorise on possible solutions. Many of the theories advanced are at best ad hoc rationalisations drawn from skewed perceptions of human behaviour. In practical terms, they are of little value. Further, the real villain is not the ‘circumstances' but the human mind, which is what creates endless problems.

At another level, neither the philosopher who pursues Truth, nor the religious teacher who offers to reveal Truth, nor the spiritualist who promises to lead us on to wisdom is likely to carry conviction because man's afflictions demand instant remedy and cannot brook any delay. The troubles stem from man's “over-worldliness”, with the human consciousness being unable to extricate itself from the shackles of the external world. When the scientist started peering into matter, searching for laws that governed its working, he began unleashing vast energies. He was not concerned with the ethics, good or bad, and it became the lot of the turbulent mind to make the choice. An objective, detached choice-making is difficult when the mind is not free from baser passions. The mind having created the demons is not going to destroy them. In the words of Einstein, the problem that man creates with his mind he cannot solve with the same mind. The “superficial mind”, as Aurobindo calls it, has grown to such dimensions that it has begun to wreck the fabric of harmony and happiness.

Full report here Hindu

DSC Prize 2012 Longlist on Wednesday

2011-09-12T21:41:00.001+05:30

India's biggest literary prize in monetary value, the DSC Prize 2012 Longlist will be announced in Delhi on Wednesday, September 14.

The Longlist will be announced by Ira Pande, Chair of the Jury. In the spirit of promoting South Asian writing we will also be presenting a discussion on "The Question of Identity: South Asian Fiction in Perspective" by Namita Gokhale, Tarun Tejpal and Sanjoy Roy.

Pakistani writer HM Naqvi won the big prize last year for his novel, Homeboy.

A Sinopolar world

2011-09-12T21:30:00.000+05:30

Forget about G2, China could be G1 soon. Arvind Subramanian's wake-up call is a must read

An economist and this newspaper’s columnist, Arvind Subramanian, has written a provocative book announcing the potential arrival of China as the world’s “dominant” economic power sooner than widely imagined. Eclipse: Living in the Shadow of China’s Economic Dominance (Peterson Institute of International Economics, 2011) warns a complacent West (a distracted India must also pay attention) that “Chinese economic dominance is more imminent and more broad-based – encompassing output, trade, and currency – than is currently recognised”.

The nineties saw many books predicting the “coming collapse of China”, while more recently there has been a spate of books recognising China’s rise but adding the caveat that the United States is going to remain on the top for the foreseeable future.

Much has, of course, been written about the “power shift” from the West to the East, the decline of the G7 economies, and the rise of China. Till 2008, and well into 2009, many in the United States, led by Fred Bergsten, had assumed that China and the US could create a G2 and run a bipolar condominium.
The Chinese pooh-poohed the G2 idea, seeking to retain their status as a voice of the developing world and preferred the French view of a “multi-polar” or “polycentric” world, perhaps partly to assuage fears in Asia about the rise of an “assertive” China.

Full report here Business Standard

Rushdie wants ‘similar’ Depp to play him

2011-09-12T21:12:00.001+05:30

Indian-British novelist Sir Salman Rushdie has revealed that he wants Hollywood heartthrob Johnny Depp to play him in any biopic, because he thinks they are quite similar.

The 64-year-old author, whose fourth novel The Satanic Verses (1988) drew protests from Muslims in several countries, is putting the finishing touches to his autobiography and is keen to make it a movie.

“It’s a long read and I’m really excited about finishing the project over the next few months,” the Daily Mail quoted him as saying at the GQ Men Of The Year awards last week.

“If it is made into a film it would have to star someone with a striking resemblance to me, so I’m trying to persuade Johnny Depp,” he said.

Full report here Zeenews

Indian American writers remember 9/11

2011-09-12T20:55:00.002+05:30

On 9/11, I was in the San Francisco bay area. I opened up my computer early in the morning, and on the MSN homepage was a video of the towers being attacked. I was in shock. At first I thought it was a simulation, or a hoax. Then I turned on the TV and heard the news. I just sat in front of the TV, stunned, for about half an hour while the same clips were being replayed. Then I couldn’t stand it anymore and turned it off. I remember feeling hollowed out.

By then the other hijacked planes had crashed as well. I felt terrible for all the lives lost unnecessarily. I felt terrible to think someone hated America (and us Americans) so much. I felt terrible because I was afraid of the violent aftermath that I guessed would follow. And of course it did — in terms of government retaliation, and also in the hate-crimes that swept across the nation aimed at anyone who seemed/looked Muslim.

Full report here Firstpost

Flipkart tries to outdo Amazon

2011-09-12T20:51:00.000+05:30

When they were starting out, Sachin Bansal and Binny Bansal would get on a motorbike to make the rounds of book warehouses across Bangalore, ride back to their two-bedroom apartment and package orders for online customers.

It was a humble beginning for two former software developers for Amazon.com who set out in 2007 to beat their one-time employer at its own game long before Amazon entered India.

“We were doing everything ourselves for the first four to five months, from packing to shipping,” Sachin Bansal, the 30-year-old chief executive of the company they called “Flipkart”, recalled of the six months before they moved into their first office. “Because our volumes were very low, our courier partners would sometimes refuse to pick up items from our apartment.”

“So we used to get on a motorbike, hold the shipment in our hands and personally deliver them to our Bangalore clients,” he said.

In those rocky first days, Sachin Bansal said, their suppliers, seeing two youngsters who had quit stable employment with Amazon, the world’s top online retailer, to go it alone, would counsel them to get proper jobs. The two men have since been cheered at home as poster boys for entrepreneurial India, establishing their company, Flipkart, as a leader in the fledgling Indian e-commerce market.

Full report here Deccan Herald

UNESCO tribute to Tagore`s legacy

2011-09-12T20:17:00.000+05:30

Rabindranath Tagore is the flavour at the UNESCO House on Avenue de Suffren in Paris this week as part of a literary initiative to commemorate the 150th birth anniversary of the Nobel laureate.

He will share the limelight with poets Pablo Neruda and Aime Cesaire.

A two-day initiative, "High-Level Sponsoring Committee for the Reconciled Universal for Rabindranath Tagore, Pablo Neruda and Aime Cesaire", beginning Monday will strive to reconcile the literary ideas of the 20th century behemoths.

While Neruda, who won the Nobel Prize in 1971, preached multi-culturism and spent several years in India, Cesaire was the founding guru of "Negritude" - the concept of black identity in French literature.

The inaugural capsule will cast the spotlight on Tagore with "Remembering Tagore".

Full report here Zeenews

Revisiting history

2011-09-12T19:59:00.001+05:30

Chat Author of Chanakya's Chant, Ashwin Sanghi talks about his love for history, intrigue and writing

Indian fiction in English is going through its own coming-of-age moment where new authors are experimenting with different genres and are not scared of promoting their books with the distinct Indianness instead of aping their western counterparts. Moving beyond college romance or chick lit stories, readers are also welcoming the historical and mythological thrillers that authors are dishing out. . Ashwin Sanghi is one such author.

Businessman to author
With a management degree from Yale University and a stable family business Ashwin Sanghi penned his first novel The Rozabel Line, under the pseudonym of Shawn Haigins, which explored the idea that Jesus hadsurvived the crucifixion and eventually settled down and died in India. Explaining the choice behind his pen name, Ashwin Sanghi says, “I was a businessman for 16 years of my life, so when I started writing I wanted to keep my literary identity separate. But later it became a marketing hazard as I did not want my readers to be shocked to see a Marwari when they were expecting a Shawn Haigins.”

After a religious thriller, his second book Chanakya's Chant was a political thriller revolving around the life of the political strategist Chanakya during the rule of emperor Chandragupta Maurya, with a contemporary twist. The book also won the Vodafone Crossword Popular Choice Award 2010. The businessman-turned-author admits that he wanted to look beyond a mundane balance sheet and explore his creative side. After a prod from his wife, he began his literary journey. “Writing helps me create a different world that I can escape to,” he says. But commenting on a full time writing career he quips in, “My worry is, if I don't have a day job my writing will become a part of my mundane boring life. I like to wear the boring hat in the morning and the exciting one in the night when I am writing.”

Full report here Hindu

Does the US have a future?

2011-09-12T16:31:00.000+05:30

Failure after failure after failure. Bubbles that end in busts. Wars that aren’t won. Stimuli that don’t stimulate. All together plunging the United States into the worst economic slump since the 1930s. Meanwhile, across the Pacific, America faces a geopolitical rival that is also an effective economic competitor — a combination not seen since the kaiser’s Germany.

Into this grim situation, Thomas L Friedman and Michael Mandelbaum step forward to offer hope. Or do they?

For there is an unnerving tension at the core of That Used to Be Us, a discordant emotional counterpoint. I don’t think it’s a disagreement between the authors so much as a disagreement within each of them.

Friedman and Mandelbaum repeatedly describe themselves as “optimists”, albeit “frustrated” optimists. Yet the stories they tell repeatedly suggest very different and less reassuring conclusions.

The main line of the book’s argument will arrive with congenial familiarity. Friedman is one of America’s most famous commentators, Mandelbaum one of its most distinguished academic experts on foreign policy. Their views – and their point of view – are well known. They speak from just slightly to the left of the battered American political centre: for free trade, open immigration, balanced budgets, green energy, consumption taxes, health care reform, investments in education and infrastructure.

Full review here Business Standard

Buy e-book reader, but not immediately

2011-09-12T15:49:00.001+05:30

Every bibliophile knows that if you need to create more space on your bookshelf or tote hundreds of books, there's only one way to do it-get an e-book reader. Touted as a tech marvel, the e-reader allows you to carry an entire library in a single device. Globally, almost all paperbacks are being converted into e-books. In fact, there's a new set of authors that only caters to the e-book market. Take the self-published crime novelist John Locke, who sold one million copies of his e-book Saving Rachel through the Kindle store on Amazon.

Despite the obvious advantages, is it really worthwhile to invest in the device, and if yes, which e-reader should one buy? Let us try to find an answer to these questions.

What to consider
There are various e-book readers available in the country. These include Infibeam's Pi, Wink (EC Media International) and Amazon's Kindle, which are priced between Rs 7,000 and Rs 15,000. Most e-book readers have a screen size of 5-7 inch, with an e-Ink display, which makes it easy to read the text. Before buying one, check that the text doesn't look faded in direct sunlight and has an anti-glare screen. You should also be able to either change the size of the font or zoom in and out.

The next important factor to consider is the formats that the device supports. The universally compatible formats are PDF and EPUB, which are supported by most devices (Kindle is the only device that does not support EPUB).

Full report here Economic Times