A crisp page turner

The third in the series of Lalli mysteries, Kalpana Swaminathan’s The Monochrome Madonna is definitely a page-turner.

The Monochrome Madonna;
Kalpana Swaminathan;
Penguin, pp 251, Rs 250 

The writing is crisp. There is the seemingly unsolvable murder mystery. There is the incorrigible Lalli with her astute skills of detection. And, at the end the murderer is caught, and the motive explained. It is in this last bit that the book falters. The murder is a motiveless one —  which is fine — but the interpretation of the murderer’s behaviour appear so flimsy, that at the end of the tale you’re left with a feeling of disappointment.

As the first Indian fictional woman detective, Lalli is an adorable character. Despite being in her 60s she has the energy and verve of a teenager. She is as comfortable talking about murder as she is about foundation creams and lipstick. Nothing escapes her hawk-like scrutiny and nothing ruffles her calm demeanour. Although retired from the police force, she is still approached by her former department as a desperate last resort when her former colleagues are faced with intractable problems, earning her the sobriquet of ‘Last Resort Lalli’. When Lalli goes off on her annual vacation — that’s when she is unreachable — her niece, Sita, gets a strange call from an old college mate, Sitara.

Full review here Deccan Herald

When Mr Bond held writers captive

At the ninth edition of the Vodafone Crossword Book Awards held in Mumbai on Friday, August 20, author Ruskin Bond’s presence not only charmed the audience, but also inspired upcoming authors.

The soft-spoken Bond was in a jocular mood, remarking how now that authors have become celebrities, they’d rather stay away from the limelight. “Writers are best read, but not seen in public, because most of them are not good-looking,” he said, leaving the audience in splits.

For Bond, anonymity has come at a hefty price. The author narrated an incident at a bookstore many years ago, when he spotted a copy of one of his books at the very bottom of a shelf. He said, “I took it and put it right on top. Unfortunately, the manager saw me and ordered me to keep it back, tell me that nobody ever bought the book. So just to teach him a lesson, I bought the book!”

The winning authors however, made best use of the limelight. Kalpana Swaminathan, who bagged the prize for best work in fiction (Venus Crossing), said, “I must appear modest, humble and not overtly delighted.” Venus Crossing, a collection of twelve stories, beat 77 entries in the fiction category and Swaminathan was described by the jury as a writer with “an assurance and felicitous grace”.

Full report here DNA

Mumbaikar brings home fiction award

The recent spurt in the field of children's literature in India has been duly noted by draftsmen of the Vodafone Crossword Book Awards 2009, who have, this year, installed a new prize category for it - 11 years after the awards were instituted. No surprise then that the chief guest for the evening was the legendary Ruskin Bond. Since Bond makes infrequent excursions out of Mussoorie, this rare opportunity to hear him speak quieted the congregation at NCPAs Tata Theatre when he took the stage. "Writers should be read and not heard or even seen, because only a few of them are good looking,'' joked Bond, adding that when he started writing 50 years ago, there were no literary fairs or awards. "In fact, I worked in a literary vacuum.''

The preliminaries eventually closed in on the raison d'etre of the evening - the awards. The prize for Fiction was brought home by Mumbai's own Kalpana Swaminathan for her Venus Crossing: Twelve Stories of Crossing (Penguin Books India). Rajni Bakshi and Sunanda K Datta-Ray were joint recipients of the Non-Fiction Prize. It was Bakshi's Bazaars, Conversations and Freedom (Penguin Books India), and Datta-Ray's Looking East to Look West (Penguin Viking) that made it through the wringers. On the shelf for Children's literature was The Grasshopper's Run (Scholastic India) by Siddhartha Sarma - the frontrunner for this award. Othappu: The Scent of the Other Side (Oxford) won author Sarah Joseph and translator Valson Thampu the Translation trophy. And finally, reader votes for the Popular Prize were in favour of Rajni Bakshi once again.

Full report here Times of India 

Crossword Book Awards 2009 announced

Indian Literary Excellence took center stage at the ‘Vodafone Crossword Popular Book Award 2009’ as the best writers and their books were honoured at NCPA on Friday, August 20, 2010. This year the awards in the Fiction category is won by Kalpana Swaminathan for the book Venus Crossing: Twelve Stories, Looking East To Look West - Lee Kuan Yew’s Mission India by author Sunanda K. Datta- Ray and  Bazaars, Conversations and Freedom by author Rajni Bakshi have jointly won in the Non-Fiction category, Siddhartha Sarma for the book The Grasshopper’s Run has won in the Children’s category and Othappu by author Sarah Joseph (translated by Valson Thampu) has bagged Translation award.

‘The Vodafone Crossword Popular Book Award’ which was introduced in 2005, was won by author Rajni Bakshi for her book Bazaars, Conversations and Freedom. The Award is a unique initiative by Crossword and Vodafone and offers readers the opportunity to vote for their favourite book.

Mr. C.B Navalkar – CEO Crossword Bookstores stated: “We are very happy with the response we have been receiving over the years from publishers, authors as well as our readers; we are back once again to encourage and reward the best of Indian writing. As the Vodafone Crossword Book Awards enter its 9th year, we are delighted to have successfully created and sustained the biggest literary platform in India.”

A packed audience that included distinguished writers, publishers, critics and book-lovers enjoyed the much-awaited event that is poised to become the biggest celebration of Indian literature. Shortlisted authors Amit Chaudhuri, Arunava Sinha, Biman Nath, Gurcharan Das, Maitreyee S. C., Mridula Koshy, Nonica Datta, Roopa Pai, Salma,  Shreekumar Varma & S. M. M. Ausaja were present at this well-attended event. Eminent author & poet Arundhathi Subramanian and eminent author & art curator Ranjit Hoskote played hosts for the evening.

The winners for the Vodafone Crossword Book Awards 2009 were decided by a respected panel of judges comprising well-known academics, critics and writers in each category. Usha K. R, Harish Trivedi and Bishakha Datta served as judges in the Fiction category; Harsh Sethi, Urvashi Butalia and Pratap Bhanu Mehta for the Non-Fiction category; Ansuhka Ravishankar, Paro Anand, Subashree Krishnaswamy for the Children’s category and Ira Pande, Sukanta Chaudhuri and Rita Kothari for the Translation category.

This year, the Award has generated a great response from the Indian publishers and 211 valid entries were received for the 4 categories. The selection process took several months of reading, deliberation and discussion before the three panels made their selections.

Crossword is India’s leading bookstore chain, which has pioneered the lifestyle bookstore concept in India. Crossword was ranked the 6th most admired retailer in India by Business world for the year 2006; it was the only book retailer in the top 10.Crossword won the Reid & Taylor Award for Best Retailer of the year – Leisure & Specialty at the India Retail Summit 2005 & 2007& 2009.Crossword won the Retailer of the Year Award - Leisure (Books, Music and Gifts Category) at the Images Retail Awards 2005 & 2007.Crossword received the Federation of Indian Publishers Award for excellence in Publishing for the year 2004 on 18th June 2005 at the hands of Shri Arjun Singh, Minister of Human Resource Development.

Launched in 1992, Crossword currently has 63 stores across 12 cities in the country in Ahmedabad, Amritsar, Bangalore, Bhopal, Hyderabad, Jaipur, New Delhi, Kolkata, Mumbai, Pune, Nagpur and Vadodara. Crossword Bookstores Ltd. is a wholly owned subsidiary Company of Shopper’s Stop Ltd – India’s leading department store chain. The Holding Company inter-alia also acts as a Master Franchisee of the Company.

Mystery of the missing Jasoos

It all began with Holmes of course. Though Poe's Murders in the Rue Morgue (1841) can claim to have created the first detective in fiction, and Wilkie Collins' The Moonstone (1868) is regarded as the first modern detective novel, the adventures of Sherlock Holmes thrilled readers like no other. Agatha Christie's Poirot and Jane Marple, and PD James' Adam Dalgliesh followed the trail. Many decades later, these and a handful of other foreign classics — continue to fill the crime fiction racks here. No desi wannabe of The Great Detectives Club has ever managed to get a foot in the door.

It's not for want of trying. In the last couple of years, the genre of Indian crime fiction in English has seen many new titles. From Lalli of Kalpana Swaminathan's Page 3 Murders, additional sessions judge Harish Shinde in Aditya Sudharshan's A Nice Quiet Holiday and ACP Nikhil Juneja in Reeti Gadekar's Families at Home, to Shashi Warrier's Anna Khan in Sniper, the Indian jasoos is begging for a break. Ravi Singh, Penguin India editor-in-chief, says, "Compared to the near drought in previous years, there are now more crime and thriller writers, but the number is still small. And very few of them sell good numbers. Kalpana and Mukul Deva have been the notable successes in recent years."

Full report here Times of India