Bhutto scion takes on America on Indian soil

Fiercely critical of the continuing American drone attacks on the northern tribal areas of Pakistan, prominent political commentator and Bhutto family scion Fatima Bhutto has blamed US interference for the continuance of India-Pakistan problems as well as the dropping of the Iran-Pakistan-India gas pipeline project.

“The history of American involvement in Pakistan involves playing Pakistan against India. They give both of us money, they take away money from one, and threaten the other. First we had British, who divided and ruled us, and now we have the Americans,” Fatima Bhutto told Deccan Herald in an exclusive interview here on Saturday.

In the country on a multi-city tour to launch and promote Songs of Blood and Sword, a book which explores the Bhutto family saga, particularly the assassination of her father Mir Murtaza Bhutto during the prime ministership of her aunt Benazir Bhutto, the author-columnist is of the view that the gas pipeline could have been a major catalyst in bringing peace.

Full report here Deccan Herald

Fatima claims aunt Benazir had a split personality

At 27, Fatima Bhutto isn't busy typing out status updates on Facebook, which she insists she loathes. Instead, she has spent the last six years writing a "love letter" to her father in which she has resurrected him, 14 years after his assassination, and held her aunt and uncle responsible for his tragic end.

In the Capital for the launch of her third book, Songs of Blood and Sword (Penguin), Fatima made it clear that she has no love lost for her aunt, Pakistan's slain former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, and her husband Asif Ali Zardari, the country's President.

On a day when a constitutional reforms package striking at Zardari's powers was tabled in Pakistan's National Assembly, Fatima said, "We don't need a President like Zardari. We need someone who is clean and honest, committed to public service, whose qualifications for ruling 180 million people is more than the fact that his wife was once the Prime Minister." Fatima's father, Mir Murtaza Bhutto, brother of Benazir Bhutto, who was then Prime Minister of Pakistan, was killed by the police in a burst of gunfire just outside his Karachi home on September 20, 1996. Mir Murtaza, who was then a member of Pakistan's National Assembly, died along with six others.

Full report here India Today

Zardari tried to bribe my father: Fatima Bhutto

Asif Ali Zardari attempted to bribe his brother-in-law Murtaza Bhutto to swing a deal in the Middle East at a time when his estranged sister Benazir Bhutto was Pakistan's prime minister but was roundly rebuffed, Murtaza's daughter Fatima Bhutto writes in her just released memoir, Songs of Blood and Sword.

Zardari was accused of plotting Murtaza's murder but had been acquitted of the charge.

The book, published by Penguin, comes at a time when Zardari is set to be deprived of his sweeping powers through a constitution amendment being tabled in parliament on Friday to transfer to the prime minister major powers like the appointment of armed forces chiefs and reduce the president to a titular head of state.

"During a state trip to Syria during Benazir's first government and while we were still in exile there, Zardari had gone so far as to ask Papa to facilitate a deal he was considering in the Middle East, offering him a cut of the profits," Fatima writes.

Full report here Hindustan Times

REVIEW: Songs of Blood and Sword

REVIEW

Songs of Blood and Sword: A Daughter’s Memoir
Fatima Bhutto
Viking
Rs 699
Pp 480
ISBN: 9780670082803
Hardback

Blurb
In September 1996 a fourteen-year-old Fatima Bhutto hid in a windowless dressing room shielding her baby brother while shots rang out in the streets outside the family home in Karachi. This was the evening that her father, Murtaza, was murdered along with six of his associates.

In December 2007 Benazir Bhutto, Fatima’s aunt, and the woman she had publicly accused of ordering her father’s murder, was assassinated in Rawalpindi. It was the latest in a long line of tragedies for one of the world’s best known political dynasties.

Songs of Blood and Sword tells the story of the Bhuttos, a family of rich feudal landlords who became powerbrokers in the newly created state of Pakistan; the epic tale of four generations of a family and the political violence that would destroy them. It is the history of a family and nation riven by murder, corruption, conspiracy and division, written by one who has lived it, in the heart of the storm,

The history of this extraordinary family mirrors the tumultuous events of Pakistan itself, and the quest to find the truth behind her father’s murder has led Fatima to the heart of her country’s volatile political establishment. Finally Songs of Blood and Sword is about a daughter’s love for her father and her search to uncover, and to understand, the truth of his life and death.

Reviews
Bloodline Indian Express
Among the few common features shared by South Asian nations are dynastic power and political violence. The friction between the two is marked by frequent political assassinations in India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. And nowhere has the intersection been bloodier than in what Pakistan’s Bhuttos had to bear. Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto founded the political dynasty and gave it a powerful populist platform, the Pakistan People’s Party. More than three decades after his assassination, the PPP remains the only mass party with a following in all the provinces of Pakistan.

After he took charge as prime minister following the loss of Bangladesh in 1971, Bhutto helped promulgate a democratic constitution for Pakistan and founded its nuclear weapons programme. As ambition got the better of him, Bhutto was ousted in a coup, incarcerated and hanged by General Zia ul Haq in 1979. That was only the beginning of the Bhutto story, which is so much part of Pakistan’s larger tragedy.

In the name of the father Mint
Of all the stories available to human beings, none is as instantly fascinating as that of a powerful family riven down the middle, feuding in public view and throwing the entire world out of shape with its might. This storyline is central to our epics, and is often reprised by contemporary events, especially in feudal societies. In such cases, the testimony of any one participant inevitably turns the story into one of good versus evil—the stakes are too high for it to be anything else, but the thrill of receiving the inside story more than compensates for the lack of detachment in perspective.

Just such a story—long-awaited since the first metaphorical gunshots were fired in recent years—is served up by Songs of Blood and Sword, 28-year-old Fatima Bhutto’s angry and sometimes incoherent retelling of the macabre lives and internecine warrings of the first family of Pakistani politics, the Bhuttos of Sindh.

Fatima Bhutto bares her famous, jinxed family Financial Express
In the September of 1996, the day her father turned 42, Fatima Bhutto said to him: “Write a book about your life, Papa. It would be so interesting.” He laughed and then said quietly, “You’ll do it for me.” His eyes were sad. A growing nervousness had been rumbling inside her for days. Two days later, Mir Murtaza Bhutto was dead. On the 12th anniversary of Murtaza’s death, Asif Zardari was sworn in as President of Pakistan. He had been acquitted of Murtaza’s murder in the build-up to the presidency.

Daughter of dynasty  TOI  Crest
Though supposed to be a daughter's memories of her father, the book is actually the tragedy-filled story of the Bhuttos, "the ill-starred dynasty" that has dominated the political scene in Pakistan for four decades. Like a good investigative journalist, Fatima has put together an interesting, gripping story, though there are very few new revelations in the book. Almost everything, including Zardari's "role" in Murtaza's death, has been reported and written about earlier.

In fact, the book is an attack on Zardari whom Fatima blames for everything wrong with Pakistan today. And that's the problem with the book. Fatima fails to see anything wrong with the Bhuttos. They are presented as martyrs who died for Pakistan. The fact that all of them died in either pursuit of power or during internal power struggles has been ignored by the writer. With their feudal, arrogant attitude, the Bhuttos have been part of the problem and not the solution. But the writer fails to address this issue.

I can never leave Pakistan: Fatima Bhutto

Fatima Bhutto, the niece of slain former Pakistani prime minister Benazir Bhutto, says that in spite of the violence her family has suffered, including the killing of her father Murtaza Bhutto, she “could never leave” the country.
“Amidst all this madness, all these ghosts and memories of times past, it feels like the world around me is crumbling, slowly flaking away,” she writes in her just-published memoir Songs of Blood and Sword (Penguin/Rs.699).

“Sometimes, when it’s this late at night (she writes in the Epilogue dated April 2009), I feel my chest swell with a familiar anxiety. I think, at these times, that I have no more place in my heart for Pakistan. I cannot love it any more. I have to get away from it for anything to make sense; nothing here ever does.

“But then the hours pass, and as I ready myself for sleep as the light filters in through my windows, I hear the sound of mynah birds. And I know I could never leave,” Fatima writes.

Full report here Thaindian

“I am the least recognisable Bhutto”

Fatima Bhutto is excited about her India tour for her memoir Songs of Blood and Sword. “I’m going to wear a saree at every city launch. A Maharashtrian silk for Pune, a south silk for Bangalore, it’s a good cultural relations strategy, don’t you think?” she smiles, as we begin the interview in her hotel room in Delhi. The 28-year-old writer-journalist is the daughter of slain political leader Murtaza Bhutto and niece of Pinky Aunty, Benazir Bhutto. “You didn’t know she was called Pinky? I called her Wadi and we used to read books together,” says Fatima. This was before 1996, before her father was shot dead two days after his 42 nd birthday.

Songs of Blood and Sword (Penguin, Rs 695) was launched in Karachi on March 31st before Fatima left for Delhi and she does not know if Benazir’s family has read the book. “I don’t think they’ll read it. We launched the book at the park where my father was killed. 700 people showed up and I am thankful for such a great show of solidarity in a time when the situation in Pakistan is so difficult,” says Fatima .

Full report here Indian Express

Fatima Bhutto's seasons in hell

A memoir is not, strictly speaking, an autobiography. It is an account of the author’s relations with some interesting people who have left an indelible impression on his/her mind. Fatima Bhutto’s Songs of Blood and Sword: A Daughter’s Memoir (Penguin/Viking, Rs 699) is a description of life under the Bhuttos, one of the six most powerful landed aristocracies of Pakistan that controlled the destinies of the country. At one level, it is a microcosm of state and society in Pakistan; at another, a history of the family that is also the history of the nation, a fractured memoir that embodies in an equally fractured form the political life of Pakistan. At a personal level, it reminds me of Tolstoy’s observation that while all happy families are alike, all unhappy families are unhappy in their own special ways. Bhuttos were unhappy, not because they had an embarrassment of riches but because of the violence that riddled the lives of each successive generation. The masthead on the cover tells it all:
Fatima Bhutto:
Granddaughter of Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto (President 1970-73 and Prime Minister (1973-77): Assassinated
Niece to Shahnawaz Bhutto — Murdered 1985
Daughter of Mir Murtaza Bhutto — Assassinated 1966
Niece to Benazir Bhutto — Assassinated 2007

So, Fatima said in a recent newspaper interview that the history of the dynasty could be read as a kind of Greek tragedy: “It seems like every 10 years we bury a Bhutto killed violently and way before their time.”
Full report here Business Standard

"My blood froze when Zardari became president"

Fatima Bhutto, niece of slain former Pakistani prime minister Benazir Bhutto, says her "blood froze" on the day Asif Ali Zardari became the country's president and prompted her to send away her younger brother from the country fearing for his safety.

Zardari was accused of plotting the murder of Fatima's father Murtaza Bhutto but had been acquitted of the charge.

"On 20 September, 2008, on the 12th anniversary of Papa's death, Asif Zardari took his oath as president of Pakistan. The ceremony had been scheduled for the day before, the 19th, but had been moved on the orders of the new president, who rescheduled his big day for Saturday, Papa's barsi," Fatima writes in her just-released memoir Songs of Blood and Sword.

"As he stood in front of parliament, which had voted him into the post almost unanimously (in the same highly democratic way that General Musharraf was 'elected' president), he paused in his speech and asked for a moment of silence to mark the occasion of his brother-in-law's death. My blood froze. It was as if he was taunting us.

Full report here Times of India

Benazir, the PM, was cruel: Fatima Bhutto

Fatima Bhutto, the outspoken niece of former Pakistani Prime Minster Benazir Bhutto, is in India to release her book 'Songs of Blood and Sword' on the tale of one of Pakistan's most powerful family.

Speaking to NDTV in an exclusive interview, she said President Asif Ali Zardari was behind her father Murtaza's death and the moral responsibility laid with her aunt Benazir Bhutto.

"Before Zardari ascended to the presidency, he was facing four murder cases in the courts of Pakistan that were quickly wiped clean. He was acquitted in the middle of four ongoing trials involving the killing of 11 men. My father was one of them," she said.

"It's more important to speak about justice when you see that there's one law for the powerful and one law for the average citizen. I don't think it's for the first time that criminals have ascended to the highest posts in power. Certainly in Pakistan it's a new precedent for us. We need to be more aware as to who's leading this country at the moment," she added.

Full report here NDTV

REVIEW: Dancing Earth

REVIEW
Dancing Earth: An anthology Of Poetry From Northeast India
Edited By Robin Singh Ngangom , Kynpham Sing Nongkynrih
Penguin Books-India
Rs. 350
Pp 344
ISBN: 9780143102205
Paperback

Blurb


The poets of North-East India, though belonging to diverse spaces, cultures, languages and religions, share a common bond. It is a sensibility defined by a deep connection with the land; the overarching presence of nature in their lives; the predominance of myths and tribal folklore; and the search for an identity. All this informs their poetry and gives it a unique flavour. Much of the distinctiveness of their work is also the consequence of contemporary events, often marked by violence. Like its title poem ‘The Dancing Earth’, the anthology too, is a celebration of this life, in all its unpredictable variety, richness and contradictions.  So while Thangjam Ibopishak writes ‘I Want to be Killed By an Indian Bullet’ and Chandrakanta Murasingh speaks of a minister with ‘neither inside nor outside’, there are  also Temsula Ao’s poems about her stone-people ancestors; Mamang Dai’s portraits of swift rivers and primeval forests; and the Shillong poets with their mist-shrouded pine slopes, red cherries and gridlocked streets.

Dancing Earth brings together the best known poets of the region, cutting across languages and time periods. Redolent of native imagery and forceful yet lyrical cadences, this anthology weaves together a remarkable variety of themes, capturing the myriad nuances of the North-East.

Review
Revisiting the northeast with sonnets Little About
The northeast has long been on the fringe of mainstream literary consciousness, edged out by its complex socio-politics, crisis of identity and the prolonged rule of the gun. The literature from the region is a mirror of the angst.  "The Dancing Earth: An anthology Of Poetry From Northeast India", edited by Robin S. Ngangom and Kynpham S. Nongkynrih, is a saga of life as experienced by the seven sisters in the northeast and by Nepal, and told in blank verses and sonnets. The collection brings together some of the best-known poets from the region irrespective of the state to which they belong in English translations.

 The poems manage to bring out the style and the essence of the emotions of the original sonnets.They draw from narrative folklores, songs, social rites, ethnic religions, individual memories, suffering, volatile politics, terror and the loneliness of a breed of young poets.

The poetry addresses two important issues: the question of regional identity in a land that has been described as a contiguous swathe with ethnic diversity, who share a common history, and how violence has seeped into the poetry to breed a gut-wrenching contemporary melange of content and poetic metres.

Can Karachi get a new start?

A tourist visa to Pakistan, priced at Rs 15, roughly the same as a local bus or Metro ticket in Delhi, sounds like a deliciously tempting bargain but getting there, at this twisted juncture in India-Pakistan relations, is not a joy ride. There is only once-a-week PIA connection between Delhi and Karachi. Writers like Fatima Bhutto, who is promoting her family memoir Songs of Blood & Sword in India this week, or the literary critic Muneeza Shamsie who is the regional chair of the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize to be announced in Delhi in later this month, have to travel to Delhi via Dubai. Everywhere I went during the five days I spent in Pakistan last week, friends, acquaintances and colleagues complained of the hardship in getting Indian visas. Fehmida Riaz, the country’s leading feminist poet who spent several years of exile in India during Zia-ul-Haq’s regime, spoke of the tedious paperwork involved including translated and attested copies of ID cards.

Karachi is not reputed as a sub-continental beauty spot. Jihadist battles, gang wars and gunfire are familiar street sights and sounds, drug trafficking in its vast slums, kidnappings and political violence between Sindhi nationalists and MQM, the muhajir party of immigrants from UP and Bihar, are the stuff of everyday life. The horrific kidnap, torture and beheading of Daniel Pearl by Al Qaeda operatives in 2002 certified Karachi as the bad news capital of South Asia. Kolkata, with its slow-moving strikers and fading hammer-and-sickle graffiti or Mumbai with its “maximum city” appellation of overall wretchedness, seem vaguely hopeful in comparison.

Full report here Business Standard

A tribute to Rabindranath Tagore

The Hindi film industry is getting ready to pay tribute to India’s most famous poet — Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore — on the occasion of his 150th birth anniversary next year.

A special compilation of songs penned by Tagore will hit the market next year with renditions from some of the best voices from the industry.

The project is being produced and directed by Ujjvwal Chatterji who has earlier made two albums on Tagore songs where he has worked with actors like Rajesh Khanna and Amitabh Bachchan.

Now, in this venture lyricist Javed Akhtar will translate renditions from Gitanjali — the poem compilation for which Tagore became the country’s first Nobel laureate — to suit the taste of Hindi music listeners. Music director Aadesh Srivastava will compose the music.

Full report here DNA

Desai captures audience with cross-cultural tale

Indian author Kiran Desai walked on stage Wednesday night with a book in her hand and a wealth of experience and knowledge to share.

Desai read an excerpt from her award-winning novel “The Inheritance of Loss” to a large crowd of more than 100 University students in the Multipurpose Room of the Rutgers Student Center on the College Avenue campus.

The book touches on some of her own experiences as an Indian immigrant, but mainly aims to explore the effects of globalization and assimilation on various cultures. As the youngest winner of the Man Booker Prize and the National Book Critics Circle award, Desai was a fitting choice to speak, said Carolyn Williams, director of the Writers at Rutgers Reading Series.

“I wanted to have an excellent author who could read about South Asian authors and themes,” said Williams, an English professor.

Full report here Daily Targum

REVIEW: Wide Angle

REVIEW:
Wide Angle-Candid Moments from my Playing Days
Anil Kumble
Printed by Canvera.com
Designed and published by Krab Media
Available exclusively online from wideangle.canvera.com.
Rs. 5,900
Pp 182

Review

Dreamcricket.com
Apart from being India's greatest match-winning bowler, there have been very few cricketers who have worn the India cap with such grace, dignity and patriotism as Anil Kumble. It has been nearly two years since his retirement from international cricket, though he is still making his mark in the IPL.

Now this outstanding coffee-table book reveals a hitherto hidden talent of the master leg spinner who bowled his heart out for India over two decades. Judging from this collection, photography is more than a hobby, it is a passion for Anil.

Kumble is one of those rare sportspersons who loves to explore every country he visits instead of being cooped up in five-star comfort. It is this quest for knowledge allied to his sharp intellect that makes Anil stand out in a crowd and this book is a wonderful keepsake not only for Anil himself, but for his countless fans around the world.

A long way off?

For 28-year-old Ahmed Faiyaz, the secret of a content life does not lie within the pages of a self-help book. Instead, he believes in taking every day as it comes, exploring relationships and seeing where it leads one to — either on the path to happiness or otherwise.

And that is exactly what he writes about in his debut novel titled Love, Life and All That Jazz. The CA-turned-employee at the Dubai Health Authority says, “My book deals with how lives are shaped for young adults right after they finish college and step out into the bigger world.

Because of work and other commitments people grow apart and relationships change. People get pulled apart for various causes.”

The author also admits that several incidents in the plot that revolves around a group of youngsters trying to find the true meaning of love and life have been inspired from his own life. Faiyaz says, “Yes, the book has been a product of my experiences and those around me to a large extent. But also being an author, it has to draw from my imagination as well.

Full report here DNA

Indian poets enthrall KU students

The Audio-Visual Centre of the Arts Faculty, University of Karachi (KU) was packed to the capacity with the students of the Urdu Department. They were patiently waiting for the Indian poets who were in the city to participate in Mushairas organized by the Jang Group in connection with the initiative of ‘Aman Ki Asha’ in association with the Times of India Group.

The Department of Urdu had invited acclaimed Indian poets including Nida Fazli, Khushbeer Singh Shaad, Shahnaz Nabi, Ahmed Mahfooz and Tarannum Riaz for a lunch as well as a poetry recital. This was done to get the students oriented with their poetry and the message of love that they have brought from India.

The poets were accompanied by the Vice Chancellor KU Dr Pirzada Qasim, Group Editor Jang Mahmood Sham and Chairman of the Urdu Department Dr Zafar Iqbal.

The Indian poets enthralled the students and the teachers with their recitals of intricately woven verses that spoke of love and care that the people of both the countries had for each other.

Full report here News

REVIEW: The Green Pen

REVIEW:
The Green Pen, Environmental journalism in India and South Asia.
Keya Acharya and Frederick Noronha
Sage
Rs 395
Pp 312
ISBN:  9788132103011
Hardback

Review
‘Green’ in black and white Hindu
Many people believe that water is a very ‘dry’ subject, frets Shree Padre in ‘Water journalism warrants better attention,’ an essay included in ‘The Green Pen’ (www.sagepublications.com). To Padre, the subject of water is so wide, important and deep that to do justice to that we need a battalion of water journalists. He anguishes about the dearth of right kind of information in the form of books, videos and so on that can teach the layman how water can be conserved in the local situation or how rain can be caught.

“Take the example of open wells that are there in many parts of the country. For nearly 4,500 years, these have been serving people. But in the last 50 years, this structure is being neglected, abandoned and refilled with soil.” If only a booklet can explain the possible methods to increase the water availability in a well or to revive a ‘dead well’ or at least to reuse a dried well as a percolation pit for the surrounding community, it can encourage the local communities to shoulder the easy, low-cost revival process, the author argues.

Dream sequence

The unlikely romance of The Japanese Wife has made it to celluloid, but it is history, and stories around history that really excites Kunal Basu.

It is not peak summer yet, but the mid-morning sun is already uncomfortable. The flowers in the Lodhi Garden lawns are wilting, but dressed in a full-sleeved black linen shirt and blue jeans, Kunal Basu shows no obvious sign of discomfort. With The Japanese Wife, Aparna Sen’s film based on his short story, releasing next week, this is Basu’s moment in the sun.

Of course, with four well-received books in the last seven years, Basu is no stranger to public interest — his website, remarkably easy to negotiate and comprehensive, proof of the many queries his agent gets from journalists for “photographs, reviews, quotes, etc.” But the film adaptation has fuelled interest in The Japanese Wife, taking it and Basu to an audience, in India at least, far wider than that which reads English language fiction.

Lodhi Gardens is a favourite haunt, and for someone who’s lived abroad for 32 years now — Basu left India in 1978 to study in the US, taught there and in Canada for many years and now lives in Oxford, where he teaches marketing at the Said Business School — he is remarkably familiar with its 15th-century ruins. “This used to be a serai,” he points to the Bara Gumbad that we’ve decided will be the venue for the interview. “You can sense a whole lot of weary men and their animals who’ve crossed the Khyber Pass and come through the hot scorching desert to finally find a resting place.”

Full report here Business Standard

Delhi noir

“Doesn’t he read a lot like Naipaul?” asked a colleague as she leafed through a copy of Aatish Taseer’s debut novel, The Temple Goers, at the Oxford Bookstore last Wednesday. A few minutes later, as Taseer read out passages after passages from his book at the launch ceremony in a wise old man’s voice, words strung together in precision paid homage to Taseer’s most obvious literary influence, VS Naipaul.

And as he narrated a part of his novel (“a typical party scene in upmarket Delhi”), Naipaul himself leapt out of the pages as an intriguing character referred to as the “Writer”. The Writer in Taseer’s book is the visionary who almost predicts the lead protagonist’s brush with fate. Much like Naipaul, he is astute and is dismissive about the concept of India as a democracy. As the party scene is played out in the living room of a posh Delhi household, we indulge in a game of identify-the-Delhi-celebrity. Isn’t the somewhat loud, chief minister who also happens to be a royalty of Jhaatkebaal (an imaginary state) modeled on a certain CM of a princely state? Isn’t the mother of the protagonist modeled on Taseer’s mother (journealist Tavleen Singh)?

Full report here Indian Express

Emperaza of cool

Roopa Pai has a way with children. She can get them to read about Indian mythology believing it's cool, writes Bhumika K
.

She should be credited with being able to achieve a whole lot of things, but mostly, three very difficult things — getting children to read Indian fantasy books, getting people to walk in Bangalore, getting children to listen to history! Knotty tasks, huh? She has conjured up an exotic world for a whole lot of youngsters (and adults) — a world of Taranauts ruled by Emperaza Shoon Ya (aided by the able Miss Shuk Tee), inhabited by brave young Mithyakins, over whom lurks the evil Shaap Azur.

Co-founder of Bangalore Walks, a tour guide, and a writer, Roopa Pai is herself like a child. And maybe that's why her first in a series of eight books “Taranauts: Quest for The Shyn Emeralds” is a delightfully-told story. “I'm trying to make Indianism cool without being in-the-face Indian. And that's been difficult for Indian writers,” says Roopa. Most Indian children stay away from traditional and mythological storybooks for two reasons. The folklore is often forced down their throats by eager parents — a sort of “you must know your culture” thing. And very often, they lose out when competing with dazzlingly produced foreign books.

Full report here Hindu

Rajkot man has record mini-book collection

Rajkot-based 29-year-old teacher has become the first person in Gujarat for being featured in the Guinness Book of World Record (GWR) for having the largest collection of miniature books.

The teacher, Nikunj Vagadiya, who's name featured twice in the Limca Book of World Records for having the collection, has recently got certificate from the Guinness Book of World Records Authority for having the collection of 258 miniature books.

Talking to PTI, Vagadiya said the miniature books were in different categories including religious, short story books, biography of famous personalities of the world and dramas of Shakespere.

Full story here Times of India

How is it that people can so easily go from being oppressed to being an oppressor? Immigrants fleeing from a society where they were second class citizens come to a new country in order to make a fresh start, but somehow forget what it was that caused them to have to flee in the first place. Instead of being merely grateful for the opportunity to live as they like without having to look over their shoulders, they become driven to make a success of themselves no matter what. Perhaps because they lived with insecurity for so long, they are blinded to anything but guarantying security for themselves and their loved ones in this new place, and lose track of everything else.

Obviously that’s not the case with all immigrants, and its not even a statement one can make about any particular community in general. Within any group of people there will be those, no matter what their backgrounds or personal histories, who will have no compulsions about doing whatever they have to in order to get ahead, and those who follow a more moderate path. Yet in a society whose system is based on the premise of winners and losers, one group will invariably be higher up the ladder that somebody else. Therefore, no matter how good their intentions, they will be the exploiters, in either a small way or a large way, of those beneath them. While we may like to think of ourselves as living in a classless society the reality is wealth equals status and the more you have the more exalted you are.

Full review here Epic India 

A new wave in the offing

The trend now in Telugu writing is to look into ourselves; look into our own. This could be called introspection in a very broad sense of the word. Well-known writers are now asked to write, not just creative or critical writing, but about how and why they have become what they are today. The best way to ponder this is to talk about themselves in as dispassionate and objective way as they can. It’s not very easy for egocentric people (most writers are just that) but the attempt by publishers is interesting and novel. What’s more, the writers have risen to the occasion and the readers seem to be liking them.

First there was the publisher from Tirupathi, a committed Telugu language promoter, Kota Purushottam who came up with the idea to find what moulded the character of each of the reputed Telugus in different fields (here it was not just literary people but reputed personalities from all walks of life, with literature taking a big slice). This book recorded one or a few incidents that influenced their life; this took those people right down to their childhood, coming up with interesting and inspirational incidents. The whole idea behind this exercise was not for the protagonists to introspect, but for the next generation to be inspired by it. It is something like a motivational book, trying to say that all extraordinary things stem from ordinary situations. It seems to have paid off, with the success and wide readership it has managed to acquire.

Full report here New Indian Express

Tellers of tales weave a success story

On a breezy March evening, a crowd squeezes through a traffic jam to enter an open-air auditorium in a narrow street in Chennai, gradually occupying all the 500 seats.

“This episode of the Ramayana tells us how to deal with knots in our lives,” the artiste on stage, Vishakha Hari, says in a sing-song tone in Tamil, throwing a philosophical spin to ancient poet Valmiki’s second book of verses that starts with epic hero Ram’s planned coronation, but ends with his banishment to the forest.

“It talks about rules and regulations,” she says in English to the nodding crowd. Most people remain glued to their seats through the two-and-a-half-hour performance that ends close to dinner time.

Telling tales may be labelled as a dinosaur in today’s high-tech and sensationally visual world of movies, television shows and Internet videos. But a new crop of performers is flavouring this lost art form with relevance and stamping it with commercial viability through strong DVD sales and spiking demand from schools and corporates as a catalyst for creativity.

Full report here Mint

Sage set to make new inroads

When Vivek Mehra, MD and CEO, Sage Publications, quoted Martin Luther King Jr’s “I have a dream” catchphrase at the publication house’s 45th anniversary celebrations at the Taj Mahal Hotel in New Delhi on March 17, what he had on his mind was an extensive expansion plan not just in South Asia, but across the globe. Joining him in the resolve were the board of directors of Sage Global — Blaise Simqu, president and CEO, Sage USA, Stephen Barr, managing director, Sage UK. Sage Publications, a pioneer in social science research and text books which was set up by Sara Miller McCune and George McCune, established its Indian wing in 1981.

Mr Mehra’s dream centres around Sage’s brand repositioning: From an academic, non-trade publication house, it is contemplating to diversify itself into retail as well as publishing serious non-fiction, including biographies, books in regional languages and reference journals. “We have a global system of marketing and our products are better placed in the world. Today, there is a need for the Indian books to be sold better abroad,” says Mr Mehra, adding that Sage’s system enables it to have a seamless flow of content across the globe.

Full report here Asian Age

Mumbai musings: A city of dreams

There is no contention that this 'city of dreams- Mumbai' exudes certain magic that leaves its inhabitants and visitors spellbound with others waiting to be cast under its magical spell. What is this charm and magic? What is the mystic of Mumbai?

“Words are all I have to take you heart” goes a popular pop song but in our case, words originate as a desire to express the emotions of having our hearts been taken away by the charming, sensuous and mystical Mumbai. There is no contention that this ‘city of dreams’ exudes certain magic that leaves its inhabitants and visitors spellbound with others waiting to be cast under its magical spell. What is this charm and magic? What is the mystic of Mumbai?

In attempt to uncover the secrets and reveal answers to these questions, many Indian authors have chosen Mumbai as a central character in their books while others have based their characters in this financial capital of India only to beautifully exploit the nuances of the city.

For instance, Kiran Nagarkar in his fiction work Ravan and Eddie has set his protagonists by the similar names in CWD Chawl in Mumbai’s Mazagaon area. The era is 1950s and India is a newly born nation, still grappling with issues of religious and caste distinctions. The plot unfolds with the two characters who are Hindu and Christian respectively, working towards satisfying their curiosity about each others religion.

Full report here merinews

Namwar Singh unravels democracy in literature

"Our democracy may be in danger, but the democracy in Literature is thriving. Literature does not recognize caste, gender or colour. It does not follow the rules of society," declared Prof. Namwar Singh, noted litterateur and recipient of the Sahitya Academy Award.

He was delivering the Fourth Silver Jubilee Lecture on 'The Democracy of Literature: Place of the Marginalised', organized by the Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) at the Convention Centre in its main campus.

The focus of the lecture was on various stages in the history of conflict between society and literature. Prof. Singh stressed that Literature is democratic. He presented several examples from the writings of prominent Hindi writers like Nirala, Sudama Pandey ‘Dhumil'. He read out from the poems of the above writers to illustrate how they placed 'Dalits’in their compositions.

Full report here India Edunews

Plan to hike cash prizes for Hindi literature awards

The government plans to increase the cash prizes given to winners of Hindi literature awards, according to Information and Broadcasting Minister Ambika Soni.

Presenting the Bhartendu Harishchandra Awards, Ms. Soni said the cash prizes, ranging from Rs. 10,000 to Rs. 35,000, were rather low from the present day perspective. The Ministry would soon take a decision for its upward revision.

The annual awards are given for original writings in Hindi on journalism and mass communication, national integration, children's literature and women's issues. The 2007 and 2008 prizes were given on Monday.

Full report here Hindu

Mahasweta stalls Suman, party frowns

For a change, Mamata Banerjee may not find Mahasweta Devi’s advice to Kabir Suman requesting him not to resign as MP too palatable.

The Trinamul Congress chief had made it clear to her aides at a meeting in Delhi yesterday that she would rather have the Jadavpur MP out of the party than let him cause further embarrassment.

Mahasweta sent a note to Suman last night urging him not to resign after the MP sent text messages to Mamata and party chief whip Sudip Bandopadhyay expressing his desire to quit both Parliament and party.

Today, the writer said: “Differences between Suman and Trinamul have strengthened the CPM’s hands. I will advise both Mamata and Suman to sit with me and thrash out their differences through dialogue for the greater cause of driving the CPM out of Bengal in 2011.”

Full report here Telegraph

Whittaker joins HarperCollins

Catherine Whittaker has joined HarperCollins' language division as publishing director for language learning.

She will head a newly created team that will focus on developing a range of English language teaching materials for Asian markets and also have a worldwide brief for working on digital language learning products.

The new team is an expansion of the previous trade foreign language-learning team, with new ELT focus. It comprises a team of eight based in London, plus regional business development roles in Korea, China and India.

Rob Scriven, managing director of Collins Language, said: "Technology, enabling new ways of learning, together with new consumers in an expanding international market, offer powerful opportunities for language publishing which HarperCollins is exceptionally well positioned to capitalise on.

Full report here Bookseller.com

Hooda learning Punjabi

With Haryana having declared Punjabi the second language of the state, Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda is himself learning the neighbouring state's language.

Hooda, who was speaking in Punjabi, Sunday, March 28 said he was now trying to learn how to read and write this 'wonderful language which is spoken not only within India, but also in several other countries from Pakistan to Canada'.

Addressing a gathering organised by the Haryana Shiromani Gurudwara Prabandhak Committee at Pipli near Kurukshetra, 110 km from here, to honour him for declaring Punjabi the second language of Haryana, Hooda said Punjabi had an important place as a language in the country.

Full report here Sify

Englishing of India

Lord Macaulay must be celebrating in his grave even if history took nearly two centuries to echo his minute: the creation of “a class of persons, Indian in blood and colour, but English in taste, in opinion, in morals and in intellect”.

A little more than a week ago, newspaper headlines confirmed that more Indians speak English in India today than any other language, barring Hindi. Reportedly, there are 125 million Indians who speak English (and use it as their first, second or third language). This adds up to more than the entire number of English speakers in Western Europe – barring the UK. Sometimes, history doesn’t just repeat, it also surpasses itself.

Many believe that  Macaulay’s minute stirred the beginnings of bilingualism in India. Almost 200 years later, we might well ask: So what?

While the statistics augur well in terms of entering into the likes of the Guinness Book of World Records, what does it spell in terms of impacting our lives? Macaulay’s minute may have brought about the ‘Englishing’ of India — as Bangalore dramatist Poile Senguptaa’s play Keats was a Tuber defined. But what does this mean for the masses?  Actually, quite a lot. Bangalore and Cyberabad experiences have already confirmed the co-relation between speaking English and the IT world. But history tells us that there is more to learning English than BPO or call centre jobs.

Full report here Bangalore Mirror

Free books replace free booze at Goafest

Goafest 2010 has arrived at some significant decisions based on the feedback that the Festival is becoming "too much of fun and frolic" and "too little about knowledge sharing".

The Goafest 2010 committee has therefore unanimously decided that there will be no free booze served at this year's edition of the festival. Instead, delegates will be able to benefit from a wealth of literature on advertising, consumer behaviour and social media that will be made available free of cost for delegates. Colvyn Harris, CEO, Goafest and president, AAAI has confirmed the development.

"Goafest, besides being a celebration of the best of Indian advertising, is also a great platform for sharing of knowledge within the industry and for young adlanders. We're focussing on knowledge as the main take-away from this fest and not tanned skin and empty beer cans. Knowledge is God and God is in the details. It is always important to look at seemingly minor issues such as spellings and dates," Harris said.

Full report here Campaign India

Past Present

I’ve forgotten where I’d read this, but way back when we were a newly independent nation wondering what our national language would be, someone (I forgot who) made a suggestion (which, fortunately, I do remember, or else I would have had to begin this post in some other way) that was dismissed immediately as ridiculous.Southerners (among others) objected strongly to the proposal that our national language should be Hindi. There were many reasons for this, but one related to script. Devanagari is not the script of the South, so the suggestion was this: to make Hindi more palatable to people from the South, it should be written in Roman – i.e., using the English script.

The suggestion was, as I said, dismissed immediately as ridiculous. Because who on earth would read Hindi in English and why should they anyway, when Hindi has its own script?

I think of this every time I see an advertising hoarding that writes Hindi (or Marathi) in English. It never, ever fails to make me chortle. Because it is ridiculous, but, since the 90s, this is what’s been happening in our popular culture. Perhaps old whatzisname who made that suggestion was right after all.

I’m not certain at all, but I think I read about this Hindi-in-Roman suggestion in Ramachandra Guha’s India After Gandhi, which is a history of the country since Independence. It is a huge, massive tome, the kind that is really hard on your wrists, but I found it utterly fascinating and read it at almost one stretch through a weekend.

Full article here Hindustan Times 

REVIEW: India in The Shadows of Empire

REVIEW
India in The Shadows of Empire: A Legal and Political History (1774-1950)
Mithi Mukherjee
OUP
Rs. 750
Pp 316
ISBN: 0198062508
Hardcover

Blurb
"The pioneering research offers a sweeping new interpretation of the complex and seemingly contradictory nature of Indian democracy and polity. In contrast to much of existing scholarship, it joins the colonial and postcolonial periods in Indian history into a seamless narrative.

The book explains the postcolonial Indian polity by presenting an alternative historical narrative of the British Empire in India and India's struggle for independence. It pursues this narrative along two major trajectories.

On the one hand, it focuses on the role of imperial judicial institutions and practices in the making of both the British Empire an the Anti-Colonial Movement under the Congress, with the lawyer as political leader. On the other hand, it offers a novel interpretation of Gandhi's Non-Violent Resistance Movement as being different from the Congress. It shows that the Gandhian Movement, as the most powerful force largely responsible for India's independence, was anchored not in western discourses of political and legislative freedom but rather in Indic Traditions of renunciative freedom, with the renouncer as leader.

This volume offers a comprehensive new reinterpretation of the Indian Constitution in the light of this historical narrative. The book contends that the British Colonial idea of justice and the Gandhian ethos of resistance have been the two competing and conflicting driving forces the have determined the nature and evolution of the Indian polity after independence.

Ambitious, original, and thought-provoking, this book will be indispensable for students and scholars of Indian history, the British Empire, legal-constitutional history, political science and sociology. It will also interest anybody seeking a broad understanding of the mainsprings of modern Indian history and politics."

Review
Revenue wrongs Hindu
At around the same time as the conflict between the British Parliament and American colonies was heating up, another affair in another corner of the world was beginning to occupy the attention of the English people, writes Mithi Mukherjee in the opening chapter of ‘India in the Shadows of Empire: A legal and political history 1774-1950’ (www.oup.com). “This involved the increasing financial and political influence in Parliament of the East India Company, a mercantile body that, on the basis of its trade monopoly in the East, derived from a charter from the British Parliament, had amassed enormous fortunes from India…”

Registered with the London Stock Exchange, this trading company that had also become the government in India was effectively directed by a group of jobbers and brokers, who for all practical purposes had become legislators for India, determining policies for the Company’s government on behalf of the shareholders of the company, the author narrates.

Poetry of passion for peace

The cool breeze flowing across the lawns of the Arts Council of Pakistan on Tuesday, March 30 night brushed gently against those who had filled the venue. It was the perfect setting for a Mushaira: there was passion and a festive mood; it was fun and revelry, a will to carve a peace with India; and most of all, there was poetry from the poets of the two countries that were in a flamboyant mood to talk about peace. And they did so poignantly.

Eminent personalities of the city, as well as Indian and Pakistani poets celebrated the occasion held under the auspices of ‘Aman Ki Asha.’ Almost everyone took part in setting some pigeons free — a poetic representation of hope for peace that has eluded the India and Pakistan for over six decades. The stage filled with the white flags waved by these people whose enthusiasm was simply contagious.

Everybody danced to the tune of ‘Lal Meri Pat’ sung passionately by Shazia Khusk, and received equally by the audience, who were jovial and showed their approval to the peace effort launched by Jang and Times of India groups.

Singer of the ages, Mehdi Hassan, was also there to give credence to the occasion. Javed Miandad, Shoaib Muhammad, Behroze Sabzwari, Kashif Khan, Salahuddin Sallu and others representing cricket stars, actors and elite of the city also pledged their support to the Jang Group.

Full report here News

REVIEW: The Politics of Trade

REVIEW

The Politics of Trade: The Role of Research in Trade Policy and Negotiation
Diana Tussie
Hotei Publishing
Rs 5398
Pp 352
ISBN: 9004172785
Hardcover

Blurb
The rising era of post-paradigmatic wars in the field of international trade has narrowed ideological differences making policy more porous to independent research. But whose ideas matter? When? And how do actors make them matter? Why are some of the ideas that circulate in the research-policy arenas picked up and acted on, while others are ignored and disappear?' Is demand-driven research most likely to effectively influence policy? The episodes of trade policy change and negotiations included in this volume show the growing relevance of commissioned research in increasingly contested settings designed from the beginning to support a particular cause- research not as independent truth waiting to be "hooked," but as instrumental and supportive to policy decisions taken on other grounds.

Review
Relating policies to research Hindu
Policy makers and academics relate to each other in complex ways, and sometimes they do not relate at all, says Diana Tussie in ‘The Politics of Trade: The role of research in trade policy and negotiation’ (www.idrc.ca). There have always been those in policy circles who are aloof to the products of research and who go about their business with only some evidence gathering along the way in a mostly do-it-yourself fashion, she observes.

“By the same token there have always been academics quite content in their ivory towers, working in priest-like fashion at their intellectual constructions regardless of the world beyond or the policy implications of their research.” Thankfully, however, the once-pervasive segregation between policy and research is now fast retreating, as the ideological cleavages and paradigm wars of yesteryear began to subside and trade liberalisation has become enshrined as a development model in itself, the author notes.

REVIEW: Takaful Islamic Insurance

REVIEW

Takaful Islamic Insurance: Concepts and Regulatory Issues
Simon Archer, Rifaat Ahmed Abdel Karim, Volker Nienhaus
John Wiley & Sons
Rs 5,760
Pp 300
ISBN: 0470823526
Hardcover

Blurb
hors Rifaat, Archer and Volker bring an international perspective to the growing Islamic Insurance industry. Drawing on contributions from leading experts around the world, they present a comprehensive view of the very issues governing the industry and its future direction. As top financial institutes around the world seem to enter the lucrative Takaful markets, this timely book offers crucial background information and advice, invaluable for any serious player in the market.

Review
Islamic insurance Hindu
Conventional insurance, which is based on an exchange of premium payments now for future indemnities in case of specified events, is not valid under Shari’ah law due to the uncertainty (gharar) of the value of the future indemnities, informs ‘Takaful Islamic Insurance’ (www.wiley.com).

Part of the solution to the juristic problem lies in the adoption of a mutual structure for underwriting insured risks, with the insureds (participants) mutually insuring one another on a non-profit basis according to the principle of takaful (the Arabic word for ‘solidarity’).

Another aspect of the solution – as the authors Simon Archer, Rifaat Ahmed Abdel Karim and Volker Nienhaus outline – consists of characterising the policy contributions (premiums) to the risk fund as incorporating an element of conditional and irrevocable donation (tabarru’), the donor making the contribution to the risk fund subject to being entitled to benefit from mutual protection against insured losses.

Women poets foster India-Pakistan relations

Women poets from India and Pakistan have gathered here in a bid to foster ties between the two countries through their verses, a media report said.

The 'Indo-Pak Women Verse Concert', held at the Karachi Arts Council, featured well-known poetesses from Pakistan and India, who expressed the wish to build an atmosphere of love and peace between the two nations through their poems, Geo news reported Thursday.

The concert Wednesday was presided over by prominent Pakistani poetess Adiba Kishwar Naheed and hosted by television actress Bushra Ansari.

Dignitaries and audience present at the concert later said both Pakistan and India share similar cultures, which were reflected through the verses presented by all the poets.

Full report here Little About

"I have no plans to leave India"

I recently had the pleasure of meeting and then interviewing Sir Mark Tully, a British writer and journalist, considered to be an expert on India, who lives in Delhi. In the interview the veteran former BBC correspondent, who was once very outspoken of the corporation’s restructuring, talks about why he remains in India, what he wants to see changed and why he does not consider himself an expat. Since you are my loyal blog readers, I have posted the entire interview below.

Your last book, India’s Unending Journey, was published in 2007.  Yet you seem very busy. What are you working on right now?
For the past 13 years I have been making a programme for BBC Radio Four called Something Understood. I make 30 of these a year and we make them in batches of six and I am doing six right now.  I make three in India and the rest in the UK. It’s a discussion about matters, which you cannot understand fully, such as philosophy, poetry, religion, all sorts of things, but less in the rational field and more in the intuition field. I am also writing another book on how India has changed since economic liberalisation. It’s like my book No Full Stops In India (NFSII). Next year will be 20 years since liberalisation and also approximately 20 years since NFSII was published.

So, what will that book say? How has India changed?
Well, it has changed rapidly in some respects. There has been a huge release of entrepreneurial activity, as a result of the licence permit of the Raj being lifted.
Industrial production and consumer goods increased, such as the motor car. Twenty years ago, India was still in the age of the Maruti and the Ambassador and even they were only limited to a few people then. The permits were lifted in 1991. Until then there had been a socialist system whereby all industrial expansion had to be subjected to licence processes. These are some of the positives. However, the negatives are the systems of governance and the institutions that affect them have not been tackled. The book is based on reportage, it is not academic. NFSII was about how Indian culture needs to be protected, but the issue of governance was touched on in it. I have written another book called India in Slow Motion, which is about governance in India.

Full report here Hindustan Times

Now, a film to be made on Tagore's story

With the 150th birth anniversary of Rabindranath Tagore being celebrated this year, Bengali filmmaker Pranab Chaudhari has decided to pay homage to the Nobel laureate with his film Muslomanir Galpo, based on a story written by Kabiguru a few months before his death.

Muslomanir Galpo is about Hindu-Muslim harmony and atrocities against women. In the story, the lead character Kamala transforms herself into Meherjan and leads her life for the welfare of abandoned and repressed Hindu girls.

"I was searching for a different story for my film. Tagore wrote the story just one and a half months before his death (on Aug 7, 1941). Probably he wanted to tell his readers to stop these atrocities," Chaudhari told IANS over phone from Kolkata. He plans to release the film May 9 to commemorate the 150th birth anniversary of Tagore.

Chaudhari says the story of Muslomanir Galpo is relevant even 68 years after Tagore's death. "I have made this film to give the message to the wider section of viewers to stop atrocities against womanhood and to keep Hindu-Muslim amity, the main essence of Kabiguru Rabindranath Tagore's story.

Full report here Hindustan Times

Kagojer Bou ready to release

Lovers of cinema based on literature, contemporary or classic, Bengali, national or international, can look forward to Kagojer Bou (Wife on Paper) directed by Bappaditya Bandopadhyay based on a novel authored by Sirsendu Mukhopadhyay, one of the most talented writers among contemporary Bengali littérateurs. Bappaditya has made another film on Sirsendu’s story, Silpantar, a very complex film that brought him international recognition. The name was Potua Nibaran, about the tragedy of a folk artist who finds his art fading away in the face of competition from modern intrusions into art. A serialized version was made for television long ago. But it failed to click.

Bappaditya Bandopadhyay is among the younger lot of filmmakers in Bengal who has hit the international scene with his works. His first film Sampradaan fetched him the Most Promising Director Award from the Bengal Film Journalists Association. It also featured at the 6th Dhaka International Film Festival in 2000. It is about a young girl choosing her mother to ‘give her away’ as part of the wedding rituals, conventionally done by the father.

She rejects the father’s request because he deserted the family when she was a little girl. After Silpantar, he has never had to look back. Other films followed such as Devaki, (in English and Hindi), Kantataar, Kaal and Houseful.

Full report here Calcutta Tube

Disney to air series based on Tamil literature

Close on the heels of Cartoon Network announcing the launch of Amar Chitra Katha series based on the popular comic book, comes news that Disney Channel is all set to show an animated series based on the celebrated Tamil literary work Thirukkural.

Titled Ek Tha Jungle, the serial developed by Accel Animation Studios, showcases couplets from Thirukkural - written by noted Tamil poet Sri Thiruvalluvar. Each story of Ek Tha Jungle establishes a ‘Kural’(couplet) from Thirukkural told through animal characters. Some popular stories include The Clever Monkey, The Helping Bear and The Rabbit And The Tortoise.

Says Devika Prabhu, Associate Director, Programming, Walt Disney Television International India, “Disney Channel is committed to showcase evergreen stories that transcend generations and are locally relevant. Ek Tha Jungle is one of the many steps that we will take to enliven Indian storytelling heritage, which continues to remain thoroughly entertaining and equally relevant to modern-day India.” The series will premiere on April 5 and air Mondays to Thursdays at 9.30 am.

Full report here Screen 

Filmmaker pays tribute to Tagore

With the 150th birth anniversary of Rabindranath Tagore being celebrated this year, Bengali filmmaker Pranab Chaudhari has decided to pay homage to the Nobel laureate with his film Muslomanir Galpo, based on a story written by Kabiguru a few months before his death.

Muslomanir Galpo is about Hindu-Muslim harmony and atrocities against women. In the story, the lead character Kamala transforms herself into Meherjan and leads her life for the welfare of abandoned and repressed Hindu girls.

"I was searching for a different story for my film. Tagore wrote the story just one and a half months before his death (on Aug 7, 1941). Probably he wanted to tell his readers to stop these atrocities," Chaudhari told our source over phone from Kolkata. He plans to release the film May 9 to commemorate the 150th birth anniversary of Tagore.

Full report here Zee News 

CN Vidyavihar to establish new Gujarat library

Sheth CN Vidyavihar is considering setting up a unique library that will have books written about Gujarat in any language, and dedicate it to the state.

TJ Purani, director of Sheth C N Vidyavihar said, "We are considering setting up a special library which will have books on Gujarat. It will be conceived as a library of Gujarat. But by this one should not understand that it would be just another Gujarati library. The proposed library will not only be having books, magazines, journals and other literature written in Gujarati but will have all kind of material published in any language which have references about cultural, political, geographical, social, historical region of Gujarat, Gujarati community and Gujarati language."

He further said, "This idea was proposed by Prof. Tridip Suhrud, chairman of advisory board of CN Angreji Kendra. The management will consider making it a public library as well as a research library, where a specialised archive will be created, as we are lacking good public, governmental archives. But these archives will be for accredited users only."

Full report here DNA

Literary quiz winners get only half the prize

Students of Marathi department of University of Pune (UoP) were left shocked as the organisers of Marathi literary meet being held in the city from Friday reneged on prizes for literary quiz competition. Winner team has received just half of the earlier announced prize amount.

Organisers of Akhil Bharatiya Marathi Sahitya Sammelan had announced a literary quiz competition based on works of eight Marathi writers in February. Chairperson of the reception committee Satish Desai and chief executive manager of the meet Sanjay Bhaskar Joshi had declared that winning team would get cash prize of Rs 10,000 and books worth Rs 10,000.

As the quiz was a very tough challenge, a team of four students from Marathi department of UoP started preparations two months before the quiz. Each student shared two writers and studied thoroughly numerous original works and reference books, said a team member, Harish Shelke. The painstaking study paid off and they won the first prize. But to their utter dismay, they were given only Rs 5,000 in cash and books worth Rs 5,000. Similarly, second and third winners also had to be content with half the prize.

Full report here Sakaal

Bibliophiles at bookstalls in droves

Oblivious to the sweltering March heat, citizens since Sunday morning thronged the SP College ground in numbers Pune does not often witness. No, it was not in anticipation of the Big B’s arrival; he was slated to land in the evening. Much before that, book lovers lapped up books by the dozens at the exhibition and sale of a maze of books put up as part of the 83rd Marathi Sahitya Sammelan.

Through the day, the heart of the city buzzed with activities. It actually did much before the inauguration of the sammelan on Friday and reached a crescendo on Sunday despite it being a holiday for schools, colleges and offices. From schoolchildren cycling in at their pace, college students zipping across cluttered roads, families, professionals and activists, book enthusiasts of all motions and moods made their presence felt.

If the range of books — science, history, geography, art, culture, health, farm, religion, yoga, meditation, education — available cheered the buyers, the discount offered, right up to 50 per cent, was an added attracted. It was difficult to figure out the choicest pick of the buyers as every stall was scanned by different groups and individuals.

Full report here

'Marathi should be made mandatory'

Cutting across party lines, political leaders on Sunday observed that it is the need of the hour to make the use of the Marathi language compulsory. It was also observed that the promotion of the language both at the government and societal level is a must for its survival.

These views of the leaders were expressed at the All India Marathi Literary Meet during a seminar on ‘Making Marathi compulsory is the need of the hour.’

Representatives of the Congress, the BJP, the Shiv Sena, the NCP and the MNS shared the dais along with noted critic Sudhir Rasal while retired Chief Justice of the Bombay high court Chandrashekhar Dharmadhikari chaired the seminar. The discussion was moderated by Sudhir Gadgil.

Full report here  Times of India

South Asian writers focus of Montreal's Blue Met

Governor General's Award-winning author M.G. Vassanji and Mexican novelist Cristina Rivera Garza are among the literary stars who will appear at Montreal's Blue Metropolis festival next month.

The annual festival devoted to writing from around the world announced its lineup on Tuesday, March 30. Toronto-based Vassanji, author of Giller Prize winner The In-Between World of Vikram Lall, won the Governor General's Literary Award this year for A Place Within: Rediscovering India.

He appears in a program of South Asian writers with two authors from India — poet and playwright Koyamparambath Satchidanandan and multilingual children's author and publisher Sandhya Rao.

The multilingual Blue Met program also focuses on Arab, Portuguese and Spanish writers as well as a group of Quebec literary stars.

Full report here  CBCNews

Punjabi poet Dr Jagtar passed away

Eminent Punjabi poet and ghazal writer Dr Jagtar passed away. He was 75. He is survived by his wife and two daughters.

Although he had not been in good health for the past many months, but was quite till for the past couple of weeks. On Tuesday, March 31, he was rushed to a nearby private hospital where doctors declared him dead on arrival. Dr Jagtar was widely credited for being a stickler for meter and rhyme in his compositions, thereby imparting an old-word charm to them. He was conferred the Sahit Akademi Award in 1995 for his book “Jugnu Diva te Dariya”.

Other than this, his celebrated and critically acclaimed books on poetry include “Sheeshe da Jungle”, “Lahu de Naqsh”, “Dukh Pathri”, “Tilkhiyan Ranginian”, “Ruttan Rangliyan”, “Janjriyan vich ghiriya Samundar”, “Chunakri Sham” and “Mom de Log”.

Full report here Punjab Newsline