Romance of power

Based on love and politics, Tuhin Sinha's latest book calls the youth to participate rather than crib about the state of affairs

“I have always had a flair for writing,” says this commerce graduate who despite his training in numbers and accountancy is the proud author of three successful books. Tuhin Sinha's journey began as a free lance journalist, and moved into scriptwriting for teleserials. It was in 2006 that Tuhin released his first novel, That Thing Called Love.

“You don't meet too many youngsters who are confident about writing,” says Tuhin about young writers.

This time Tuhin has pegged his story on politics. His latest book, Of Love and Politics, (Hachette, Rs. 250) plays upon the various turns relationships can take when two people feel strongly about ideologies, “The havoc created by ideological differences is the premise of the book, and it does deal with a lot of other issues.” In his book Tuhin calls for the youth to participate and make a difference rather than cribbing about existing conditions.

Tuhin is a columnist with the Times of India and he had done a series called Love Thy Leader where he brings in the disparate elements of love and politics and allows the two to converge.

Full report here Hindu

House warming

A Politburo member, a second-generation Congressman and a bureaucrat-turned-BJP MP shed ideological baggage to form a new political outfit. That is how this book ends. Before this, they shed their outfits.

In a progressive/democratic alliance struck between the sheets, a firebrand woman MP, impressed with a TV appearance in one instance and a speech in Parliament defending the civil nuclear deal in another, chats up a political adversary and accepts his invitation for a drink at a Delhi hotel. Sparks fly, conversations turn cosy and ideologies melt before you can say global warming.

Not that the merry troika is oblivious to the world around it. Round-the-clock television, SMS alerts and news websites are the staple diet for the young, urbane MPs. So, if you wanted a primer on the genesis of Hindu terror in the late 2000s, or the middle class's denouement after 26/11, or the Hyde Act, author Tuhin Sinha's take on events of national importance will provide you a peek.

A minor editing quibble: “Aditya thinks of me as his girlfriend. The mismatch makes us converse about everything under the sun, expect us.” Uh-oh.

Full report here Hindustan Times

Of love, politics and grist for the literary mill

Acclaimed Indian writer, Tuhin A Sinha is all set to release his latest book, Of Love and Politics. From being a television script writer to becoming a best-selling author, Sinha has managed to captivate his audience with his work in both the fields.

An advertising and communications management graduate, Sinha’s creative urge and flair for writing, made him enter this domain. He started off as a script-writer and thenmoved on to author books, which he enjoys tremendously. “The feeling of having created something exclusive and having the independence to carve out a story and shape up the characters is elating,” says the young author.

Speaking about his latest book, Sinha says, “Though the book has hard-core drama involving a passionate storyabout relationships and the turbulences the protagonists face— there is an important underlying message for the country’s youth,” he says, adding, “I feel they should be more participative and come forward to engage in politics.”

In its rather unsuspecting way, the book highlights some of our biggest political blunders post Independence.

Full report here DNA

Political love

She is a true diva. She came well beyond the appointed hour. Clad in a blue salwar kameez with a bandhni dupatta, lips dark and glossy and hair cascading down, Tollywood siren Rituparna Sengupta was all apology as she stepped inside. “I was shooting in Agarpara,” said the light-eyed actress.

Of Love and Politics, Tuhin A. Sinha’s latest offering published by Hachette, had its first nationwide launch in Calcutta on the 35th anniversary of Emergency on June 25, with Rituparna and novelist Rimi B. Chatterjee attending the Oxford Bookstore event.

Tuhin read out a small passage on the Emergency. “Though the Emergency does not figure in the novel there are fleeting references to it,” said Sinha.

Of Love and Politics is a novel on three GeNext Indian politicians belonging to rival political parties. So there is a BJP MP and a CPM girl who meet at a television studio and sparks fly.

“But by the next morning they are on a different equation altogether,” said the author. Chatterjee, a novelist, said: “The ending, I think, somehow runs out of steam and there are long conversations that could have been edited.”

Full report here

Tuhin Sinha's Of Love and Politics launched

Tuhin Sinha's latest book, Of Love and Politics, was launched in Delhi on July 2.

The novel, published by Hachette, is an unusual love triangle between three young Indian politicians.

The book was launched by BJP leader Ravi Shankar Prasad and noted CNN-IBN's Bhupendra Chaubey. This is yet another addition to the rapidly growing number of popular fiction titles by Indians this summer.

Blurb
I’m a political journalist by profession and an eternal romantic at heart. I’m sure that is a scandalous and a rare combination.

Unlike the US, where elections are essentially personality centric and every citizen has a right to decide the next leader, Indian elections tend to be extra-democratic, often putting the very institution at peril. The Indian political scenario is largely tri-polar. There is the Congress and its allies called the UPA on the one hand, the BJP and its allies called the NDA on the other. And then there is the Third Front comprising Left Parties and others who come and leave the front on their convenience. A tri-polar contest carries a huge probability of a hung parliament, which in turn results in some rather hasty and volatile re-alignments to form government. Some of these alignments can be outright opportunistic. And having closely studied them over the last several years, I am in a position to deduce that Indian political parties are promiscuous by nature.

The other interesting point that I have noted is that the political ideology or thought of an individual does tend to percolate down to the individual’s personal demeanor and beliefs too. At least, my friendship with a host of politicos cutting across ideological affinities and my comprehension of them bears testimony to such a phenomenon.

What happens then, when the political drama that unfolds in the country’s corridors of powers, spills over to a complicated personal bond that the protagonists – Aditya Samar Singh, Brajesh Ranjan and Chaitali Sen share?

Aditya like the Congress party he belongs to, tends to be aristocratic while he stands for rationalism and prudence; he is a centrist and he’s accommodating. Brajesh Ranjan, like his party, the BJP, swears by an overtly nationalist agenda; his personal dignity, as well as his idea of the nation’s self dignity tend to be so inflated that they sometimes border on egocentricity; he is hard on himself and others alike. Chaitali Sen, like the CPI(M) she represents, does have some revolutionary crusader traits and instincts. It goes without saying, she is leftist at heart and swears by the underpowered.