A vampire comes to India

The book is called Excess but one can’t say that it is excessively interesting. It’s a mixed collection of a few very touching stories, some pedestrian and some plain banal.

Manjula Padmanabhan’s blood-curdling story, Feast, about a vampire that has a free run of bodies to feast upon, stands apart from the above. Masquerading as Andrew Morton, a vampire from Europe who lands in Delhi finds he can drink to his heart’s content from Indian bodies without ever getting caught. In fact, nobody ever misses the dead bodies which he cuts up and dumps in garbage bins after he has sucked out all the blood from their passive bodies. “It’s a system based on infinite abundance, in which nothing and no one matters because there is always more where it came from,” explains Cindy, another vampire. “They don’t fear us,” she continues, “because they know in their deepest hearts that their sheer numbers will prevail.”

Is this story about the ease with which invaders, down the years, have looted India’s riches? Or is it about India’s spiritual triumph over all marauders? Indians, they say, never die completely. They get reborn. And with each re-birth hope springs afresh. ‘Feast’ is an intriguing story that gives you goose bumps.

Full review here DNA

Words’ Worth

The city’s first literary fest served as a forum where readers and writers could interact

Around 300 participants, from India and abroad, participated in the first Chandigarh LitFest, which dovetailed into the tenth international conference of MELOW, the Society for the Study of the Multi-Ethnic Literature of the World. The three-day event, organised by Chandigarh Sahitya Akademi (CSA) in collaboration with Panjab University, hosted a number of plenary lectures,poetry and story reading sessions and book exhibition, creating a forum where writers and readers got to interact with each other. As part of the event, writers Shashi Deshpande, Manjula Padmanabhan, Mamta Kalia, Namita Gokhale and Malashri Lal spoke at length on February 28 on Contemporary Issues: Literature and Culture since 1980.

“CSA aims to operate on the local, national and international levels. Thanks to it, the city now has a platform to host literary events like panel discussions, book-launches, mushairas, lectures and creative writing competitions. We also invite distinguished writers, artists and academics from outside Chandigarh,” says Manju Jaidka, chairperson of CSA. The Litfest has become an opportunity to put the Akademi on the world map and forge connections between the city and the big world outside. “The idea is to promote genuine talent in the field of art and literature,” adds Jaidka.

Full report here Indian Express