It was an engaging session at the book release of Michel Danino’s The Lost River: On the trail of the Sarasvati, published by Penguin Books India, at the CP Ramaswami Aiyar Foundation.
Dr A K Gupta, former scientist, ISRO/Regional Remote Sensing Centre, Jodhpur, released the book and Nanditha Krishna, honorary director of the CP Ramaswami Aiyar Foundation, received the first copy. What followed the book launch was an illustrated presentation by the author taking a deeper look at the river Sarasvati. The author pointed out that the Rig Veda often mentions the Saptasindhava: the Indus, its five tributaries and the Sarasvati (the seventh tributary).
“Some 19 rivers are listed in the Rig Veda flowing from the East to the West. Interestingly, Ganga is the minor river in the Rig Veda,” said the author and explained that celebrated as ‘Sarasvat’ in the Rig Veda and the Mahabharata, this river was rediscovered in the early 19th century through topographic explorations by British officials. Drawing information from recent research in a wide range of disciplines, this book discusses different view points and proposes a harmonious synthesis — a fascinating tale of exploration that brings to life the vital role the lost river of the Indian desert played before its waters gurgled to a stop.
Full report here New Indian Express
Monday, March 29, 2010
Kids failing to read books
The fast life has casted its spell over school kids as they think reading big fat novels is a waste of time. Most British students, after being presented with short extracts and worksheets to practice comprehension and sentence structure, fail to read complete novels at schools.
The National Union of Teachers have expressed their concern over the trend and said that it is fueled by the widespread closure of school libraries to save money. The union of teachers at the Annual Conference in Liverpool would discuss to dedicate a slot in the timetable to give children more opportunity to “read for pleasure.”
Alan Gibbons, the children’s author, who will address the meeting, said an over-reliance on short extracts risked undermining children’s grasp of classic works by Dickens and Shakespeare.
Full report here Oneindia
The National Union of Teachers have expressed their concern over the trend and said that it is fueled by the widespread closure of school libraries to save money. The union of teachers at the Annual Conference in Liverpool would discuss to dedicate a slot in the timetable to give children more opportunity to “read for pleasure.”
Alan Gibbons, the children’s author, who will address the meeting, said an over-reliance on short extracts risked undermining children’s grasp of classic works by Dickens and Shakespeare.
Full report here Oneindia
Still no Indian visa for book tour: Fatima Bhutto
Fatima Bhutto, the niece of slain former Pakistani premier Benazir Bhutto, who is aggressively promoting her tell-all tome on the Bhutto dynasty, has said she has not been granted a visa to visit India for a book tour.
"Still no Indian visa!" Fatima said in a message posted on her page on the social networking website Twitter.
She followed it up with another tweet saying she "doesn't bite. Can she have her Indian book tour visa now?"
Over the past few weeks, Fatima has been promoting Songs of Blood and Sword, her book on the Bhutto dynasty, which has already been declared a promising read by reviewers across the globe.
She has also relaunched her website fatimabhutto.com.pk. "My website is finally up. Attack of the fakes is over. This is me," she tweeted. In the recent past, Fatima has been on "warpath" to silence the fake "Fatima Bhuttos" on websites like Twitter and Facebook.
Full report here The Times of India
She followed it up with another tweet saying she "doesn't bite. Can she have her Indian book tour visa now?"
Over the past few weeks, Fatima has been promoting Songs of Blood and Sword, her book on the Bhutto dynasty, which has already been declared a promising read by reviewers across the globe.
She has also relaunched her website fatimabhutto.com.pk. "My website is finally up. Attack of the fakes is over. This is me," she tweeted. In the recent past, Fatima has been on "warpath" to silence the fake "Fatima Bhuttos" on websites like Twitter and Facebook.
Full report here The Times of India
A must read book on Indian civilization
Right at the outset, the book connects today’s reader with our forefathers thousands of years ago, by pointing out the similarities in rituals and daily practices. The tradition of applying sindoor in the centre parting on the forehead by married women has been observed in the terracotta figurines that have been carbon dated to be circa 2800-2600 BCE (Before Common Era), even before what is known as Harappan civilization. Bangles and the ‘chauk’ on the forehead were also in vogue then, as they are now. Utensils similar to the ones in common use now in our kitchens have also been excavated from the Harappan region. The tradition of bead craft in Gujarat region too dates back to thousands of years.
Full report here Organiser.org
India Unbound
Lord Meghnad Desai wears criticism with style. His latest book The Rediscovery of India has been written off as best read by ‘philistines’, professional historians have declared that he knows no ‘history’, but Desai swallows the outrage with a healthy pinch of salt, and humour.
“There has been a lot of re-writing of history. It’s always fair to interpret historical facts and form your opinions on nation building,” says Desai, in Kolkata for an event organized by an entrepreneurs’ body. “Only when Bal Thackeray rubs a Shah Rukh Khan the wrong way, that this generation wakes up to contemplating India as a nation. It’s then that the youngsters feel violated and solemnly declare that Mumbai belongs to all Indians. How many know that the issue is probably as old as pre-Independence India?” says Desai.
The book, published by Penguin, questions among other things the popular tendency to define India as a single entity almost as a retaliatory statement against hostile nations. ‘Indians appear to have lost a unity of identity, except when it concerns an external enemy’, he writes. “Within itself, India has a lot of definitions. Popular history has been mostly divided between the royal court stories of north India which includes the Mughal and Pathan rulers and the Hindutva story which traces the origin of Indians to the Hindus, the Aryans. Where is south India, where is North East in the narrative?” he asks. Something, that Desai feels, is reason enough for a reconsideration of Indian history. And when the Centre and state administrations are being driven up the wall by the demand for separate linguistic territories, Desai declares that there’s no need to feel threatened by linguistic differences.
Full report here The Indian Express
The book, published by Penguin, questions among other things the popular tendency to define India as a single entity almost as a retaliatory statement against hostile nations. ‘Indians appear to have lost a unity of identity, except when it concerns an external enemy’, he writes. “Within itself, India has a lot of definitions. Popular history has been mostly divided between the royal court stories of north India which includes the Mughal and Pathan rulers and the Hindutva story which traces the origin of Indians to the Hindus, the Aryans. Where is south India, where is North East in the narrative?” he asks. Something, that Desai feels, is reason enough for a reconsideration of Indian history. And when the Centre and state administrations are being driven up the wall by the demand for separate linguistic territories, Desai declares that there’s no need to feel threatened by linguistic differences.
Full report here The Indian Express
Bringing back joy & pleasure
Last weekend, Pakistan’s rising literary stars and a handful of fiction writers, journalists and poets from India, Bangladesh, UK and the United States gathered to kick off the country’s first literary festival in the pulsing port of Karachi...
In the last ten years, authors of Pakistani English language fiction such as Mohsin Hamid, Nadeem Aslam and Mohammed Hanif have gained increased recognition in the international literary scene, winning accolades and prestigious prizes such as the Betty Trask Award, the Kuriyama Prize and the Commonwealth Writer’s Prize. But until last weekend, there had never been a forum within Pakistan to discuss and celebrate this phenomenon.
Last weekend, Pakistan’s rising literary stars and a handful of fiction writers, journalists and poets from India, Bangladesh, UK and the United States gathered to kick off the country’s first literary festival in the pulsing port of Karachi, Pakistan’s largest city and its financial and economic center. Although the festival was announced to the public merely a day before the inaugural event due to security concerns, the festival’s sessions drew an enthusiastic and diverse audience of Karachiites who listened eagerly to authors discussing their work and debating issues such as the role and challenges of contemporary South Asian English Literature.
It was an idea that the festival’s organisers hatched after attending India’s DSC Jaipur Literature Festival in 2009, which British historian William Dalrymple has guided from its beginnings as a small gathering of writers and critics in 2005 to the largest and most prestigious literary event in Asia.
Full report here Deccan Herald
Last weekend, Pakistan’s rising literary stars and a handful of fiction writers, journalists and poets from India, Bangladesh, UK and the United States gathered to kick off the country’s first literary festival in the pulsing port of Karachi, Pakistan’s largest city and its financial and economic center. Although the festival was announced to the public merely a day before the inaugural event due to security concerns, the festival’s sessions drew an enthusiastic and diverse audience of Karachiites who listened eagerly to authors discussing their work and debating issues such as the role and challenges of contemporary South Asian English Literature.
It was an idea that the festival’s organisers hatched after attending India’s DSC Jaipur Literature Festival in 2009, which British historian William Dalrymple has guided from its beginnings as a small gathering of writers and critics in 2005 to the largest and most prestigious literary event in Asia.
Full report here Deccan Herald
Don't like the read? Get your money back
The Publisher's Promise is singularly daring. And it smacks of over-confidence. But Singh, 34, is nonchalant. "It's the height of arrogance to write a book in the first place," he says laughing, "And if you're going to chicken out at the end, there's no point to this," he says. Plus, he thinks it a good marketing strategy.
Anup Bamhi of Khan Market bookstore, Faqir Chand, agrees. "It's something unusual. People may buy for the heck of it. Then it's discussed among friends." Faqir Chand has sold 35 copies since its release on March 1 and none have been returned. "People like it. Or they are embarrassed to return a Rs 195 copy," says Bamhi chuckling. More seriously, he argues that people may have considered recouping the amount if the title was, say, for Rs 795.
Full report here The Times of India
REVIEW: Dreaming in Hindi
Dreaming in Hindi: Coming Awake in Another Language
Katherine Russell Rich
Tranquebar
Rs 395
Pp 401
Blurb
Having miraculously survived a serious illness and now at an impasse in her career as a magazine editor, Katherine Russell Rich spontaneously accepted a free-lance writing assignment to go to India, where she found herself thunderstruck by the place and the language. Before she knew it she was on her way to Udaipur, a city in the northwestern state of Rajasthan, in order to learn Hindi.
In this inspirational memoir, Rich documents her experiences in India — ranging from the bizarre to the frightening to the unexpectedly exhilarating — using Hindi as the lens through which she is given a new perspective not only on India, but on the radical way the country and the language itself were changing her. Fascinated by the process, she went on to interview linguistics experts around the world, reporting back from the frontlines of the science wars on what happens in the brain when we learn a new language. Seamlessly combining Rich’s courageous (and often hilarious) personal journey with wideranging reporting, Dreaming in Hindi offers an eye-opening account of what learning a new language can teach us about distant worlds and, ultimately, ourselves.
Review The Economic Times
Katherine R Rich has a wicked sense of humour and this becomes apparent from the very start of the book. The account of her stay in India brings forth the many Indias, a cauldron that would leave any straight-head American bewildered in no time. But Rich is in no rush to go back. Besieged by the idiosyncratic, passionate, and the argumentative Indian, she takes her time to settle down and belts out her chronicles in lucid chapters—one after another. And she soon begins to see and present India from the prism of Hindustani language.
To an Indian reader, this book offers a mirror, though often not as brutally as did VS Naipaul or Pankaj Mishra in their accounts under similar surroundings. Rich has a subtle touch, and she makes good, timely use of Hindi words to drive home her observations. Not for nothing that the book was selected for Oprah Winfrey’s list of ‘Ten most thrilling reads of 2009’.
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Getting transformed by learning a new language Suite 101.com
Near the start of Dreaming in Hindi, author Katherine Russell Rich says: "I took up with Hindi at a time when it seemed my life had buckled out from under me." In the wake of a bout with cancer and the discovery that her job didn't make her happy any more, Katherine decides to head for Udaipur in India to learn Hindi. She continues: "I no longer had the language to describe my own life. So I decided I'd borrow someone else's."
So begins a year long odyssey which is chronicled in Dreaming in Hindi. The book blends the author's memoirs from that period with the latest thinking on linguistics and second language acquisition. An assignment for a magazine starts the ball rolling, and on her return from India she begins taking Hindi lessons. Soon that's not enough and she makes the decision to leave her old life behind and take a course in India.
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Rich encounters Hindu
It so happened that I read this book at a time when I was having to speak five languages on a daily basis. None of them was new; but reading this made me aware of what I was doing. I could almost sense the different brain paths in use, and I was certainly sensible of a different cultural approach to each. It was the best way – and one I could never have planned – to appreciate Rich's experience of learning Hindi from scratch.
Writerly forays
Rich's background is with magazines, not academics. Why she chose to learn Hindi is never clearly spelled out. She'd lost her job, and was recovering from cancer. (She wrote an award-winning book about her battle with “The Red Devil”.) She lied to an editor who'd asked her for some freelance work, saying “I'll be in India,” and was told, “Do something for us there.”
From Delhi, she was sent to an academy in Udaipur which taught foreign students. She arrived at a difficult time: five days before the attacks on New York, and that was followed in short order by the attack on Parliament, then came Godhra and the subsequent carnage. Her magazine background serves her well. She details with painstaking and sometimes painful honesty her reactions to the hatred spewed by fanatics everywhere, the branding of humans by community. There was then a palpable, shimmering unease in the air which she describes elegantly.
A tale of six yards
Vijai Singh Katiyar speaks about his coffee table book on the saris of India and the need to keep the drape alive...
To Vijai Singh Katiyar, the sari is more than just an enduring symbol of India's tradition and heritage. It is, he says, a cultural wealth, a design resource that we need to harness as we move ahead into the future. “Our Gayatri Mantra,” he says.“The sari is an iconic product — people around the world look at the sari, and they think of India,” says Katiyar, a senior faculty member at the National Institute of Design in Ahmedabad, and the founder of the International Centre for Indian Crafts.
We need to think about how to take the sari into the 22nd Century, not just for commercial benefit, but to spread India's influence, its ‘soft power' internationally.”That is the essence of Katiyar's recently launched coffee table book, Indian Saris: Traditions – Perspective – Design, a large, glossy celebration of the handloom sari, complete with 892 beautiful photographs.
The gloss, he says, is to attract youngsters, who are losing touch with this exquisite and quintessentially Indian product. “I've worked with weaver communities for 20 years, and they've always faced a lot of problems. Now, their product is too, because of waning interest among the younger generation,” he says. “I felt I must communicate with these young people, so I've tried to talk in their visual language of fashion and style.”
Full report here The Hindu
Sunday, March 28, 2010
"Lata’s songs won’t destabilise Pakistan,Faiz’s poems can’t break India"
Ashfaq Husain is a Canadian national of Pakistani origin and is considered an authority on Faiz Ahmed Faiz. Essentially a poet who migrated from Pakistan to Canada in the 1980s, Ashfaq Husain has to his credit more than a dozen of books on Faiz Ahmed Faiz, Ahmed Faraz and other men of letters. He is also the pioneer of Urdu International, a publication that has garnered critical acclaim among Urdu writers and poets globally.
Husain was recently in Pakistan to attend a peace conference in Islamabad. He also visited his home town Karachi for a couple of days where his new poetry collection ‘Ashyian Gum Karda’ was launched at a local hotel where eminent scholars, critics and journalists such as Iftikhar Arif, Dr Mohammad Ali Siddiqui and Mahmood Sham dwelt at length on Ashfaq Husain’s poetry. In an exclusive interview with The News, Husain spoke about exchange of books and periodicals between Pakistan and India, war and peace, the role played by writers and poets on either side of the divide for establishing peace in the subcontinent and more importantly against sectarianism. Some excerpts from the interview are as follows:
Do you see any logic on the ban on exchange of periodicals, magazines and books between Pakistan and India?
It was understandable when Pakistan and India fought a war in 1965. But today everything is available on the Internet and there is no justification of a ban on exchange of periodicals, magazines and books between the two neighbouring countries. In fact, authorities today can’t stop the flow of information between countries because the world has been transformed into a global village. People in Pakistan watch Indian movies and TV programmes and vice versa. Hence the ban that was imposed during the days of war hysteria and jingoism has become redundant and meaningless. In fact, only political factors are hampering flow of information between Pakistan and India.
Full interview here News
Husain was recently in Pakistan to attend a peace conference in Islamabad. He also visited his home town Karachi for a couple of days where his new poetry collection ‘Ashyian Gum Karda’ was launched at a local hotel where eminent scholars, critics and journalists such as Iftikhar Arif, Dr Mohammad Ali Siddiqui and Mahmood Sham dwelt at length on Ashfaq Husain’s poetry. In an exclusive interview with The News, Husain spoke about exchange of books and periodicals between Pakistan and India, war and peace, the role played by writers and poets on either side of the divide for establishing peace in the subcontinent and more importantly against sectarianism. Some excerpts from the interview are as follows:
Do you see any logic on the ban on exchange of periodicals, magazines and books between Pakistan and India?
It was understandable when Pakistan and India fought a war in 1965. But today everything is available on the Internet and there is no justification of a ban on exchange of periodicals, magazines and books between the two neighbouring countries. In fact, authorities today can’t stop the flow of information between countries because the world has been transformed into a global village. People in Pakistan watch Indian movies and TV programmes and vice versa. Hence the ban that was imposed during the days of war hysteria and jingoism has become redundant and meaningless. In fact, only political factors are hampering flow of information between Pakistan and India.
Full interview here News
REVIEW: Women of the Tagore Household
REVIEW
Women of the Tagore Household
Chitra Deb
Translated By Smita Chowdhry & Sona Roy
Penguin
Rs 499
Pp 648
ISBN: 9780143066057
Paperback
Blurb
The Tagore family has long been the focus of public curiosity. Like its men, the women of this illustrious family have had a great and enduring influence on the life and people of Bengal.
Women of the Tagore Household portrays several generations of connoisseurs, aesthetes and lovers of literature who were nurtured under the umbrella of cultural richness and spiritual freedom that the extended family provided. We meet Rabindranath’s wife Mrinalini and his sister-in-law Kadambari, who had considerable influence on the young poet; the progressive Jnandanandini who sailed alone to England in the nineteenth century, presenting to ordinary women a vision of courage and daring; and Sushama, who broke out of the confines of music, literature and culinary arts, to tread the path of women’s empowerment. This book reveals hitherto unknown aspects of women’s emancipation in Bengal in which the women of the Jarasanko Tagore family were at the forefront-Chandramukhi and Kadambini were the first two female graduates of India, Protiva opened up music and dramatics to women by preparing musical notations for Brahmo sangeet and Hindustani classical music, and Pragya’s prefaces to her cookbooks are still considered storehouses of not only recipes but also homemaking skills.
Review
Telegraph
Women of the Tagore Household by Chitra Deb is the modern Bengali classic, Thakurbarir Andarmahal, rendered into English by Smita Chowdhry and Sona Roy. The Tagores of Jorasanko, teeming with geniuses, had a decisive influence on the cultural life of Bengal. Apart from celebrated male figures like Rabindranath, the family included extraordinary and eccentric women like Swarnakumari (Rabindranath’s elder sister), Mrinalini (his wife) and Kadambari (his sister-in-law). Through her painstaking research, Deb unearths the life and times of these women, some of whom are alive today, and their rich but unsung contribution to art, literature, music, theatre and to women’s movement in modern Bengal. A richly layered and rivetting text, it should have been translated much earlier.
Chitra Deb
Translated By Smita Chowdhry & Sona Roy
Penguin
Rs 499
Pp 648
ISBN: 9780143066057
Paperback
Blurb
The Tagore family has long been the focus of public curiosity. Like its men, the women of this illustrious family have had a great and enduring influence on the life and people of Bengal.
Women of the Tagore Household portrays several generations of connoisseurs, aesthetes and lovers of literature who were nurtured under the umbrella of cultural richness and spiritual freedom that the extended family provided. We meet Rabindranath’s wife Mrinalini and his sister-in-law Kadambari, who had considerable influence on the young poet; the progressive Jnandanandini who sailed alone to England in the nineteenth century, presenting to ordinary women a vision of courage and daring; and Sushama, who broke out of the confines of music, literature and culinary arts, to tread the path of women’s empowerment. This book reveals hitherto unknown aspects of women’s emancipation in Bengal in which the women of the Jarasanko Tagore family were at the forefront-Chandramukhi and Kadambini were the first two female graduates of India, Protiva opened up music and dramatics to women by preparing musical notations for Brahmo sangeet and Hindustani classical music, and Pragya’s prefaces to her cookbooks are still considered storehouses of not only recipes but also homemaking skills.
Review
Telegraph
Women of the Tagore Household by Chitra Deb is the modern Bengali classic, Thakurbarir Andarmahal, rendered into English by Smita Chowdhry and Sona Roy. The Tagores of Jorasanko, teeming with geniuses, had a decisive influence on the cultural life of Bengal. Apart from celebrated male figures like Rabindranath, the family included extraordinary and eccentric women like Swarnakumari (Rabindranath’s elder sister), Mrinalini (his wife) and Kadambari (his sister-in-law). Through her painstaking research, Deb unearths the life and times of these women, some of whom are alive today, and their rich but unsung contribution to art, literature, music, theatre and to women’s movement in modern Bengal. A richly layered and rivetting text, it should have been translated much earlier.
Nazrul in contemporary society
Any discussion on Kazi Nazrul Islam gets weighted down with superlatives. His incomparable writings, in a very short spell, established Nazrul as a genius in the arena of Bengali literature.
Nazrul was born on this day in Churulia, Burdwan, near Asansol, West Bengal. His father Kazi Fakir Ahmed was the Imam of the local mosque; his mother was Zaheda Khatun. Nazrul's family was quite poor, and Nazrul was often referred to by the locals as Dukhu Miah (the ill-fated one).
Nazrul ran off from home at a young age but trouble never ceased to follow him. He worked for a while at a bakery in Asansol, where his literary talent first came to light. At the age of 18, whilst still a secondary school student at Raniganj (in West Bengal), Nazrul thought of joining the distant World War 1. He joined the Bengal Regiment as a habildar (corporal) and was posted in Karachi. Although the regiment was never in the thick of battle and was disbanded in 1920, the lilt of the soldier's parades and marches permeated much of his writing. Nazrul emerged at a time when the presence of Tagore loomed large on the Bengali literary scene. He was a great admirer of the latter.
Tagore reciprocated by admiring the young talent. The morning after composing Bidrohi, Nazrul rushed to Tagore's house and read out the poem to the maestro. Nazrul had a powerful voice - at times embodying the swaggering rebel, and at times the gentle, creative poet -- diversity reigning supreme in his songs.
Full report here New Nation
Nazrul was born on this day in Churulia, Burdwan, near Asansol, West Bengal. His father Kazi Fakir Ahmed was the Imam of the local mosque; his mother was Zaheda Khatun. Nazrul's family was quite poor, and Nazrul was often referred to by the locals as Dukhu Miah (the ill-fated one).
Nazrul ran off from home at a young age but trouble never ceased to follow him. He worked for a while at a bakery in Asansol, where his literary talent first came to light. At the age of 18, whilst still a secondary school student at Raniganj (in West Bengal), Nazrul thought of joining the distant World War 1. He joined the Bengal Regiment as a habildar (corporal) and was posted in Karachi. Although the regiment was never in the thick of battle and was disbanded in 1920, the lilt of the soldier's parades and marches permeated much of his writing. Nazrul emerged at a time when the presence of Tagore loomed large on the Bengali literary scene. He was a great admirer of the latter.
Tagore reciprocated by admiring the young talent. The morning after composing Bidrohi, Nazrul rushed to Tagore's house and read out the poem to the maestro. Nazrul had a powerful voice - at times embodying the swaggering rebel, and at times the gentle, creative poet -- diversity reigning supreme in his songs.
Full report here New Nation
Landscape of contrasts
Chitpore, in Kolkata, during its heydays was home to many literary and cultural greats. Photographer Saibal Das captures its present neglect and decay with sensitivity.
‘Kolkata is like a huge labyrinthine courtyard where an ongoing theatre performance unfolds,” says ace photographer Saibal Das. This internationally acclaimed visual chronicler has won, among other awards in his field, the UNESCO award and the National Media Fellowship from National Foundation for India (NFI). Photos from his current Chitpore series have been published in GEO magazine and elsewhere.
Saibal sees the drama of life manifesting every day and every hour in the streets of his native city. He observes with empathy and joy the urban landscape of contrasts, the amusing and preposterous, the intense and the moderate, all co-existing in the struggle for survival.
Full report here Telegraph
Saibal sees the drama of life manifesting every day and every hour in the streets of his native city. He observes with empathy and joy the urban landscape of contrasts, the amusing and preposterous, the intense and the moderate, all co-existing in the struggle for survival.
Full report here Telegraph
REVIEW: Love, A Rather Bad Idea
REVIEW
Love, A Rather Bad Idea: All It Gives Is A Lousy Hangover
Anirban Mukherjee
Srishti Publications
Rs 100
Pp 220
ISBN: 9380349046
Paperback
Blurb
In September, the month where IIT-ians do distinctly non-IITian things, Samar was having the time of his life. With Rock shows, JAM sessions, debates and politics, his life resembled a colourful graffiti. Adding chaos to this randomness were his three partners-in-crime, Pranav, Skimpy and Jiya. Together they made sure that life was impossibly wild and barely legal.
Things hit a crescendo when Samar found himself as the frontrunner in the race for the head of the student body at IIT. And that is when the tide began to turn, in a way Samar could have never imagined. A causal ambition threatened to come true, and threw at Samar dilemmas that would stump any IITian with a pair of glasses. Dilemmas which required skills not taught in any classroom, including the secret art of disaster management.
Reviews
A Post-Recession Campus Novel Pioneer
Anirban Mukherjee’s novel reads like a Bollywood potboiler, retold chapter by chapter, that keeps readers hooked till the end. While I read it, I could almost see it being made into a Hindi masala-movie. What makes this novel different from the rest of lad-lit Indian-English novels is consciousness of the time it belongs to. Although its stock characters and situations and the racy plot remind the reader again and again of commercial Hindi cinema, it is also a post-recession campus novel, expanding this ever-growing contemporary genre. Recession is discussed by the characters with chai in their hands, while they grade girls out of ten, standing by the roadside. Under the duress of recession, Samar, the protagonist, vows not to remain unemployed the following year during placement as the jobs mostly go to students who are powerful union post-holders — a decision that brings radical and swift changes to his life. The global financial crisis almost decides the course of the novel.
But this is not to say that the book shifts from the personal element; there isn’t any conscious attempt to tell how recession changes the lives of these characters but it is an important backdrop against which the drama unfolds. The characters are well-etched out and vividly portrayed — actually, only the male characters. Pranav is the most interesting of them all, and although his friend, the wayward Samar who does all the wrong things at the IIT, is a character in contrast, he cares a lot for his friend. Pranav remains Samar’s silent conscience throughout the novel, telling him what to do and what not to do while Samar goes through a whirlwind series of events in his pursuit of the most beautiful girl on campus, Jiya. (Incidentally, when she wears sleeveless outfits, the attendance at lectures increases). However, to attain Jiya, Samar has to pass several obstacle races, one of the biggest being his friend Skimpy, who is so madly in love with Jiya that he declares his love for her in sleep, when Samar is “smothered with kisses by Skimpy.” The race for Jiya decides the basic drama of the novel and has several complicated twists and surprises which include a scene where Jiya and Samar make out in a ladies washroom before their debate at the college fest and another when Skimpy finds both of them smooching in the dark near a tree.
Anirban Mukherjee
Srishti Publications
Rs 100
Pp 220
ISBN: 9380349046
Paperback
Blurb
In September, the month where IIT-ians do distinctly non-IITian things, Samar was having the time of his life. With Rock shows, JAM sessions, debates and politics, his life resembled a colourful graffiti. Adding chaos to this randomness were his three partners-in-crime, Pranav, Skimpy and Jiya. Together they made sure that life was impossibly wild and barely legal.
Things hit a crescendo when Samar found himself as the frontrunner in the race for the head of the student body at IIT. And that is when the tide began to turn, in a way Samar could have never imagined. A causal ambition threatened to come true, and threw at Samar dilemmas that would stump any IITian with a pair of glasses. Dilemmas which required skills not taught in any classroom, including the secret art of disaster management.
Reviews
A Post-Recession Campus Novel Pioneer
Anirban Mukherjee’s novel reads like a Bollywood potboiler, retold chapter by chapter, that keeps readers hooked till the end. While I read it, I could almost see it being made into a Hindi masala-movie. What makes this novel different from the rest of lad-lit Indian-English novels is consciousness of the time it belongs to. Although its stock characters and situations and the racy plot remind the reader again and again of commercial Hindi cinema, it is also a post-recession campus novel, expanding this ever-growing contemporary genre. Recession is discussed by the characters with chai in their hands, while they grade girls out of ten, standing by the roadside. Under the duress of recession, Samar, the protagonist, vows not to remain unemployed the following year during placement as the jobs mostly go to students who are powerful union post-holders — a decision that brings radical and swift changes to his life. The global financial crisis almost decides the course of the novel.
But this is not to say that the book shifts from the personal element; there isn’t any conscious attempt to tell how recession changes the lives of these characters but it is an important backdrop against which the drama unfolds. The characters are well-etched out and vividly portrayed — actually, only the male characters. Pranav is the most interesting of them all, and although his friend, the wayward Samar who does all the wrong things at the IIT, is a character in contrast, he cares a lot for his friend. Pranav remains Samar’s silent conscience throughout the novel, telling him what to do and what not to do while Samar goes through a whirlwind series of events in his pursuit of the most beautiful girl on campus, Jiya. (Incidentally, when she wears sleeveless outfits, the attendance at lectures increases). However, to attain Jiya, Samar has to pass several obstacle races, one of the biggest being his friend Skimpy, who is so madly in love with Jiya that he declares his love for her in sleep, when Samar is “smothered with kisses by Skimpy.” The race for Jiya decides the basic drama of the novel and has several complicated twists and surprises which include a scene where Jiya and Samar make out in a ladies washroom before their debate at the college fest and another when Skimpy finds both of them smooching in the dark near a tree.
Kabir Kala Manch creates awareness through dramatics
For Kabir Kala Manch art is much more than a medium of entertainment. It’s a tool to denounce injustice, mobilise the oppressed, prepare them for struggle, create consciousness and bring about positive change.
The manch, which is a group of students and professionals, has been making people aware on various social issues through their forceful shahiri and street plays in Mumbai.
The group comprises writers, composers and talented performers who impress the audience with their thoughtful compositions and presentations.
The Gujarat riots in 1992 inspired the artistes to come together and use their art for awareness. Drawing inspiration from Kabir’s compositions, with social messages, they chose to name their group after the sant who has commented on various issues in his dohas.
Full report here DNA
The manch, which is a group of students and professionals, has been making people aware on various social issues through their forceful shahiri and street plays in Mumbai.
The group comprises writers, composers and talented performers who impress the audience with their thoughtful compositions and presentations.
The Gujarat riots in 1992 inspired the artistes to come together and use their art for awareness. Drawing inspiration from Kabir’s compositions, with social messages, they chose to name their group after the sant who has commented on various issues in his dohas.
Full report here DNA
‘English cannot be given primacy’
My first encounter with Pavan K Varma, or rather his writing, was when I reviewed his book Krishna: The Playful Divine many years ago. Before reading the book, I had this image of him in my mind which later proved to be entirely wrong. I had thought of Pavan as a stuffed shirt, a self-obsessed and utterly boring member of the exalted, twice-born Indian Foreign Service. Half way through Krishna, I had begun to doubt whether I had the right impression of the author; by the time I finished reading the book, I knew I was wrong. No stuffed shirt would have written a book like that. When I finally met Pavan, which was some years later, I realised he was a cut above his colleagues in the IFS, a class apart from those who represent India abroad. At an open air Hindustani classical music concert where Kishori Amonkar was in full flow and all of us had lost track of the hour of the night, Pavan taught me, with great élan, how to appreciate the finer nuances of Raga Nand Kalyan which I would have missed otherwise.
One of our finest diplomats, Pavan K Varma remains rooted in all things Hindustani — from culture to clothes to language. And that is evident in the series of books he has written exploring the mindset and worldview of the Indian middle classes. A gifted writer — he makes his point without belabouring it repeatedly — he is what may be called a ‘thinking bureaucrat’, which could be mistaken as an oxymoron by those acquainted with our bureaucracy and babus. The Great Indian Middle Class and Being Indian fetched Pavan, and deservedly so, critical acclaim as a commentator with profound thoughts on the past, the present and the future. His new book, Becoming Indian: The Unfinished Revolution of Culture and Identity, proves that praise for his earlier work was not misplaced. It’s a brilliant, incisive exposition of how colonialism has moulded the way we look at ourselves, our culture, and the world. “Those who have never been colonised can never really know what it does to the psyche of a people. Those who have been are often not fully aware of — or are unwilling to accept — the degree to which they have been compromised,” he writes in this book. That, in a sense, is the theme of Becoming Indian. I met Pavan for a long adda on a lazy late spring afternoon in New Delhi during which we discussed his new book. What he had to say, as always, was scintillating. Below are excerpts from that unstructured discussion:
So tell us, what prompted you to write this book? To take the middle class series nearer to a conclusion or something else...
Essentially, after 60 years of independence, I thought the time had come for a cultural audit. This audit entails two things. One is a rigorous analysis of colonialism because, as I write, colonialism is not about the physical subjugation of a people but the colonisation of their mind. And while a political audit takes place after the Union Jack comes down and an economic audit takes place to take stock of what is lost and what is gained, a cultural audit is something that does not take place ... this is something which is common to all colonised countries... to, in a sense, recolonise the mind. So, it is both a rigorous analysis of colonialism and a meditation on the state of culture today in our country.
I must confess I profess a fair degree of anguish at our low threshold of satisfaction and self-congratulation. Because we are not only a nation, we are a civilisation. We have 5,000 years of history, antiquity, peaks of refinement, assimilation, diversity ... but underlying that diversity, what is not visible to a superficial observer, is great unity. We are not a parvenu civilisation, we were not born 200 years ago, and therefore it is legitimate for us to see where we are in terms of our culture today in contrast to the journey we have made and where we have come.
And I believe in the reappropriation of our cultural space without chauvinism or xenophobia. This is all the more important because we are simultaneously in an aggressive phase of globalisation where the subtext in the field of culture is often co-option, where the victim is the last to know. And, when the educated are relatively rootless, that co-option becomes all the more easier. So that, essentially, is the paradigm of the book.
Full report here Pioneer
One of our finest diplomats, Pavan K Varma remains rooted in all things Hindustani — from culture to clothes to language. And that is evident in the series of books he has written exploring the mindset and worldview of the Indian middle classes. A gifted writer — he makes his point without belabouring it repeatedly — he is what may be called a ‘thinking bureaucrat’, which could be mistaken as an oxymoron by those acquainted with our bureaucracy and babus. The Great Indian Middle Class and Being Indian fetched Pavan, and deservedly so, critical acclaim as a commentator with profound thoughts on the past, the present and the future. His new book, Becoming Indian: The Unfinished Revolution of Culture and Identity, proves that praise for his earlier work was not misplaced. It’s a brilliant, incisive exposition of how colonialism has moulded the way we look at ourselves, our culture, and the world. “Those who have never been colonised can never really know what it does to the psyche of a people. Those who have been are often not fully aware of — or are unwilling to accept — the degree to which they have been compromised,” he writes in this book. That, in a sense, is the theme of Becoming Indian. I met Pavan for a long adda on a lazy late spring afternoon in New Delhi during which we discussed his new book. What he had to say, as always, was scintillating. Below are excerpts from that unstructured discussion:
So tell us, what prompted you to write this book? To take the middle class series nearer to a conclusion or something else...
Essentially, after 60 years of independence, I thought the time had come for a cultural audit. This audit entails two things. One is a rigorous analysis of colonialism because, as I write, colonialism is not about the physical subjugation of a people but the colonisation of their mind. And while a political audit takes place after the Union Jack comes down and an economic audit takes place to take stock of what is lost and what is gained, a cultural audit is something that does not take place ... this is something which is common to all colonised countries... to, in a sense, recolonise the mind. So, it is both a rigorous analysis of colonialism and a meditation on the state of culture today in our country.
I must confess I profess a fair degree of anguish at our low threshold of satisfaction and self-congratulation. Because we are not only a nation, we are a civilisation. We have 5,000 years of history, antiquity, peaks of refinement, assimilation, diversity ... but underlying that diversity, what is not visible to a superficial observer, is great unity. We are not a parvenu civilisation, we were not born 200 years ago, and therefore it is legitimate for us to see where we are in terms of our culture today in contrast to the journey we have made and where we have come.
And I believe in the reappropriation of our cultural space without chauvinism or xenophobia. This is all the more important because we are simultaneously in an aggressive phase of globalisation where the subtext in the field of culture is often co-option, where the victim is the last to know. And, when the educated are relatively rootless, that co-option becomes all the more easier. So that, essentially, is the paradigm of the book.
Full report here Pioneer
REVIEW: Reading with Allah
REVIEW
Reading with Allah—Madrasas in West Bengal
Nilanjana Gupta
Routledge
Rs. 595
Pp 192
ISBN: 978-0-415-54459-7
Nilanjana Gupta
Routledge
Rs. 595
Pp 192
ISBN: 978-0-415-54459-7
Blurb
Based on extensive fieldwork and archival records, this book traces the emergence and flourishing of madrasas and the myriad ways in which they impact upon local Muslim communities, especially in West Bengal. It also addresses issues of identity, ‘secular’ education and gender in this context, while exploring the myths that surround these institutions. Amongst other things, it interrogates why Muslim communities prefer sending their sons to government schools to receive a secular education, while the daughters are sent to madrasas.
Based on extensive fieldwork and archival records, this book traces the emergence and flourishing of madrasas and the myriad ways in which they impact upon local Muslim communities, especially in West Bengal. It also addresses issues of identity, ‘secular’ education and gender in this context, while exploring the myths that surround these institutions. Amongst other things, it interrogates why Muslim communities prefer sending their sons to government schools to receive a secular education, while the daughters are sent to madrasas.
Review
Much has been written on the Indian madrasas or Islamic seminaries, but because the most influential madrasas in the country are concentrated in the northern states of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, many of these writings tend to project north Indian madrasas as representative of madrasas in the country as a whole. Consequently, patterns and changing trends in madrasa education in the rest of India have been scantily dealt with, if at all, in the existing literature.
This well-documented work by Nilanjana Gupta, Professor of English at the Jadavpur University, Kolkata, is an in-depth study of the madrasa system of education in West Bengal, where some thirty per cent of the population are Muslims. Despite their formidable numbers and the fact that the so-called ‘progressive’ Left Front has been in power in West Bengal for decades now, the bulk of the Muslims in the state are economically, educationally and socially far behind the other communities, including even the Scheduled Castes.
The book begins with an engaging discussion about debates, set in motion with the advent of colonial rule in Bengal, about the usefulness or otherwise of madrasa education. Gupta points out that in pre-colonial Bengal, as in much of the rest of India, madrasas were centres not just of Islamic learning but also provided education in subjects such as Persian, Mathematics, Sciences and Medicine that were indispensable for would-be administrators and other government officials. Several madrasas were also open to Hindus of the ‘higher’ castes. The advent of the British and the new educational system that they set in place, she writes, marked the beginning of a rigid educational dualism, with secular or ‘modern’ subjects now being taught in Western-style schools, while madrasas began to narrow their focus, being restricted largely to Islamic subjects. This, in turn, led to lively debates among the Bengali Muslim community about the usefulness of madrasa education, whose echoes continue to reverberate even today.
English, language of the future
Parents have ensured the number of children in English schools has doubled in just five years - from 61 lakh to 1.5 crore. But there are concerns that the growth is still not fast enough...
Maniram Sharma studied in Hindi medium and took the civil service examination in that language before clearing all the tests to become an IAS officer. He is very clear, though, that he wants his two children to study in an English school. "I respect Hindi, my mother tongue," he says. "But English is the language of the future and it opens up the whole world to you."
It is this realisation of opportunities which English offers that is persuading a growing number of Indian parents to opt for sending their kids to English-medium schools. And the poor are often more desperate to do so, rejecting the option of free education in a government school, where the medium of instruction is usually Hindi or the primary language of the respective region. They willingly bear the burden of not-so-cheap private school education to have their children learn a language that might take them where they, their fathers and grandfathers never went. People like Sunita Devi, for instance. "Since I cannot afford to put both my children in a private English medium school, only my son is going to one," says the woman who works as a domestic help. "My daughter goes to a government school. But if I manage to earn more, I will put her also in a private school."
Full report here Times of India
Maniram Sharma studied in Hindi medium and took the civil service examination in that language before clearing all the tests to become an IAS officer. He is very clear, though, that he wants his two children to study in an English school. "I respect Hindi, my mother tongue," he says. "But English is the language of the future and it opens up the whole world to you."
It is this realisation of opportunities which English offers that is persuading a growing number of Indian parents to opt for sending their kids to English-medium schools. And the poor are often more desperate to do so, rejecting the option of free education in a government school, where the medium of instruction is usually Hindi or the primary language of the respective region. They willingly bear the burden of not-so-cheap private school education to have their children learn a language that might take them where they, their fathers and grandfathers never went. People like Sunita Devi, for instance. "Since I cannot afford to put both my children in a private English medium school, only my son is going to one," says the woman who works as a domestic help. "My daughter goes to a government school. But if I manage to earn more, I will put her also in a private school."
Full report here Times of India
The power of Babel
Konkanis are the most multilingual of all Indian ethnic groups, while Hindi-speakers, Tamils and the Bengalis are the most linguistically constrained.
If we look at which linguistic groups are the most bilingual or trilingual, there are pointers to what drives people to know or learn more than one language in India. For our analysis we looked only at linguistic groups which have a population of a million or more, since smaller groups clearly would almost necessarily have to be multilingual to be able to interact with the wider world.
Of the linguistic groups with millionplus populations, the Konkani speakers were clearly the most multilingual, almost threefourths of them speaking at least two languages and nearly half speaking three. Not surprisingly, given the geographical spread of the Konkanis, Kannada and Marathi were the other languages most of them spoke and English was the third most common subsidiary language among them.
Full report here TOI Crest
If we look at which linguistic groups are the most bilingual or trilingual, there are pointers to what drives people to know or learn more than one language in India. For our analysis we looked only at linguistic groups which have a population of a million or more, since smaller groups clearly would almost necessarily have to be multilingual to be able to interact with the wider world.
Of the linguistic groups with millionplus populations, the Konkani speakers were clearly the most multilingual, almost threefourths of them speaking at least two languages and nearly half speaking three. Not surprisingly, given the geographical spread of the Konkanis, Kannada and Marathi were the other languages most of them spoke and English was the third most common subsidiary language among them.
Full report here TOI Crest
Beyond hallowed paradigms of lives
In an engagingly written preface to Venomous Touch, Ravikumar, the activist-theoretician of the dalit movement and general secretary of the Viduthalai Ciruthaikal Katchi (VCK), traces his intellectual journey from Lenin to Bakunin, Gramsci, Althusser, Derrida and Ambedkar. Reading books rather than party politics, he says, was what gave him the impetus to think and act. For scholars and activists interested in the question of caste, Ravikumar lays out a challenging roadmap, straddling two worlds — that of theory and activism. Azhagarasan’s passionate rendering of the original Tamil essays into English has allowed Tamil dalit politics to travel to other spaces.
Written over a period of time, Ravikumar’s essays reflect his wide-ranging interests. From culture to communalism, from education to literature, Ravikumar probes the collective consensus that is democratic India today. In her foreword to the book, the feminist scholar Susie Tharu describes her first encounter with Ravikumar and writes of being charmed by the light, almost easy way in which his Niraparikai group translated, used and disseminated theory. Ravikumar is located in the political moment that followed the break-up of the Soviet Union, the moment when other things happened: the rediscovery of Iyothee Thass, the emergence of Subaltern Studies and the translation of Ambedkar into the regional languages.
Full report here New Indian Express
Written over a period of time, Ravikumar’s essays reflect his wide-ranging interests. From culture to communalism, from education to literature, Ravikumar probes the collective consensus that is democratic India today. In her foreword to the book, the feminist scholar Susie Tharu describes her first encounter with Ravikumar and writes of being charmed by the light, almost easy way in which his Niraparikai group translated, used and disseminated theory. Ravikumar is located in the political moment that followed the break-up of the Soviet Union, the moment when other things happened: the rediscovery of Iyothee Thass, the emergence of Subaltern Studies and the translation of Ambedkar into the regional languages.
Full report here New Indian Express
Sophie's choice
Sophie Girot was so fascinated with traditional Tamil cuisine that she and award-winning author Viji Varadarajan have put together a cook book in French
Heat oil. Pop mustard. Squint into kadai and yawn. After all, it's hardly the Mona Lisa.
Try telling Sophie Girot that. Her eyes are closed, as she delightedly takes deep breaths of the mustard busily popping in her saucepan. “Listen,” she says, hushing the crowd, “And breathe. That smell. It's so good.” Everyone sniffs experimentally. It suddenly dawns on us. Mustard really does have an alluring fragrance.
We're at a cooking demonstration at Alliance Française to mark the launch of ‘Saveurs et Traditions du Sud de l'Inde,' a French cook book on traditional Tamil cuisine by Viji Varadarajan and Sophie Girot.
Full report here Hindu
Try telling Sophie Girot that. Her eyes are closed, as she delightedly takes deep breaths of the mustard busily popping in her saucepan. “Listen,” she says, hushing the crowd, “And breathe. That smell. It's so good.” Everyone sniffs experimentally. It suddenly dawns on us. Mustard really does have an alluring fragrance.
We're at a cooking demonstration at Alliance Française to mark the launch of ‘Saveurs et Traditions du Sud de l'Inde,' a French cook book on traditional Tamil cuisine by Viji Varadarajan and Sophie Girot.
Full report here Hindu
'Should I die to prove Pakistan is dangerous?'
She is 27, serious-minded and is still haunted by the violent death of her adored father. After her aunt, Benazir, was killed, Fatima Bhutto described the Greek tragedy that the Bhutto dynasty had become: "It seems like every 10 years we bury a Bhutto killed violently and way before their time." In her new book on her famous, famously tragic family, Fatima is critical of Benazir's widower, President Asif Ali Zardari. She talks about the current "dangers of living in Pakistan" to Rashmee Roshan Lall.
The first reference you make to Asif Ali Zardari, president of Pakistan, is “my aunt’s oleaginous husband”. The relationship may be bitter, but surely he couldn’t be that bad if your book is allowed to be published and you live reasonably comfortably in Pakistan?
The first reference you make to Asif Ali Zardari, president of Pakistan, is “my aunt’s oleaginous husband”. The relationship may be bitter, but surely he couldn’t be that bad if your book is allowed to be published and you live reasonably comfortably in Pakistan?
I think the book clearly discusses the violence and intimidation used by Zardari. I’m not living ‘reasonably comfortably’ in Pakistan, I live on the street where my father and six other men were gunned down. I cross that street every time I leave my house. The book isn’t published in Pakistan, it’s published in India. There is no Urdu translation of the book. Do I have to die to convince you of the dangers of living in Pakistan?
Could you ever see a Barack Obama taking office in Pakistan?
What do you mean? Someone of mixed race? Someone born in Indonesia? Someone who graduated from Harvard?
Full report here Times of India
Are we losing mother tongue?
By the time Shyamoli Panchal returns home each evening she has miraculously mutated from an eight-yearold schoolgirl to a knocked-around war veteran. Her knees are bruised and often bleeding, her socks are gathered in an ungainly heap at the bottom of her legs, and her ponytail, neat and shampoo-shining in the morning, is shapeless and wild.
Invariably hungry, the first thing she does when her mother greets her at the door is demand food. "Aaje khavama shu che (what’s there to eat)? " she asks in Gujarati, the language of her father. And whatever her Bengali mother has made, the little girl is never happy. "Anathi vadhu rasprad biju kayi na hoi shake (couldn’t there be anything more interesting)? " she asks. And, adds for dramatic effect. "Hu ketli mehanat karu chu and thame mane aavu aapo cho (I’m studying so hard and this is what you give me)."
But Sadanand and Mousami, the tiny tyrant’s indulgent parents, don’t mind. "She’s quite a handful and can make things pretty chaotic around the house, but when she speaks in Gujarati it makes up for everything," Sadanand, a chartered accountant working in Delhi since 2000, says. "Her grandparents, who live in Gujarat, are ecstatic to know that Shyamoli continues to make life miserable for us in the language of her forefathers."
Full report here Times of India Crest
Invariably hungry, the first thing she does when her mother greets her at the door is demand food. "Aaje khavama shu che (what’s there to eat)? " she asks in Gujarati, the language of her father. And whatever her Bengali mother has made, the little girl is never happy. "Anathi vadhu rasprad biju kayi na hoi shake (couldn’t there be anything more interesting)? " she asks. And, adds for dramatic effect. "Hu ketli mehanat karu chu and thame mane aavu aapo cho (I’m studying so hard and this is what you give me)."
But Sadanand and Mousami, the tiny tyrant’s indulgent parents, don’t mind. "She’s quite a handful and can make things pretty chaotic around the house, but when she speaks in Gujarati it makes up for everything," Sadanand, a chartered accountant working in Delhi since 2000, says. "Her grandparents, who live in Gujarat, are ecstatic to know that Shyamoli continues to make life miserable for us in the language of her forefathers."
Full report here Times of India Crest
Librarian calls for preservation
Ashok Kumar Nath, Deputy Librarian of the National Library, Kolkata underlined the need to preserve the old newspapers. Nath, who was speaking on the role of the National Library of India in preservation of Indian newspapers in Guwahati on Friday, March 26, described the newspapers as an index of civilisation.
The Media Archives-cum-National Reference Library on the North East organised the lecture as part of its five-day workshop-cum-training programme on preservation of rare and old documents.
Nath also spoke on the preservation process adopted for newspapers in the National Library.
Addressing the function as resource person, Utpal Das, Librarian of the GC College, Silchar, spoke on the history of manuscripts in Assam.
Full report here Assam Tribune
The Media Archives-cum-National Reference Library on the North East organised the lecture as part of its five-day workshop-cum-training programme on preservation of rare and old documents.
Nath also spoke on the preservation process adopted for newspapers in the National Library.
Addressing the function as resource person, Utpal Das, Librarian of the GC College, Silchar, spoke on the history of manuscripts in Assam.
Full report here Assam Tribune
BSF opens library cum study centre
A library cum study centre constructed by the 140 battalion Border Security Force (BSF) at Heirok Higher Secondary School was inaugurated on .March 26.
Inspector General, PJ Sebastian graced the inaugural function as chief guest which was presided over by the principal of the school Moirangthem Rajmohan. DIG (CI ops) AK Sharma of SHQ of BSF and commandant of the 140 bn TPS Shidhu and up-pradhan T Ranjana attended as guests of honour of the function.
Speaking on the occasion, Inspector General, PJ Sebastian said the library cum study centre was constructed under civic action programme of the security establishment aiming at bringing closure tight with the general populace.
Full report here E-pao
Inspector General, PJ Sebastian graced the inaugural function as chief guest which was presided over by the principal of the school Moirangthem Rajmohan. DIG (CI ops) AK Sharma of SHQ of BSF and commandant of the 140 bn TPS Shidhu and up-pradhan T Ranjana attended as guests of honour of the function.
Speaking on the occasion, Inspector General, PJ Sebastian said the library cum study centre was constructed under civic action programme of the security establishment aiming at bringing closure tight with the general populace.
Full report here E-pao
Reading habit in Manipur declining
One significant reason of the non implementation of Manipur Public Libraries Act in the state of Manipur is the degrading reading habit of the people, stated Dr. R.K Nimai Singh, commissioner of arts and culture while attending the inaugural function of the two-day ‘National Seminar on Promotion of Public Library Service’ through legislation in North East (NE) held Saturday, March 27 at Nupee Lal Memorial Complex, Imphal.
Addressing the function, Dr. R.K Nimai Singh stated that reading habit of the people of Manipur has fallen drastically as compared to 1970’s,80’s and added that people of the present generation do not respect books.
Meanwhile, Narendra Lakkar, professor of Guwahati University Public Libraries stated pointed that the public libraries lag in the NE region which are supposed to play an important role in the development process of the region. He also added that public libraries play a vital role in the development process of a country.
Full report here Kangla Online
Addressing the function, Dr. R.K Nimai Singh stated that reading habit of the people of Manipur has fallen drastically as compared to 1970’s,80’s and added that people of the present generation do not respect books.
Meanwhile, Narendra Lakkar, professor of Guwahati University Public Libraries stated pointed that the public libraries lag in the NE region which are supposed to play an important role in the development process of the region. He also added that public libraries play a vital role in the development process of a country.
Full report here Kangla Online
Green letter days
More than 150 writers, many of them leading names, from the eight SAARC nations have converged in Delhi for the 33 rd SAARC Festival of Literature. Over the next three days, there will be outpourings of writings from the likes of fiction writers Selina Hossain of Bangladesh, Tahira Iqbal of Pakistan, AK Rashid from Afghanistan, Abhi Subedi from Nepal, Kunzang Choden from Bhutan and poet Lakshanta Athukorala from Sri Lanka.
India is represented by a large contingent comprising Malayalam writer MT Vasudevan Nair, Hindi poet Ashok Vajpeyi and poet-lyricist Gulzar among others. “For the writers, the event dissolves borders as they discuss issues that concern all of us. For readers, it’s a time to meet the people with whose words they have become familiar,” says poet K Satchidanandan, who recited from his works That is all on Friday, the first day of the festival.
Every year, the festival focuses on a pressing issue, and the present edition is highlighting environment degradation. Hence, the list of awardees included not only Pakistani media person Hamid Mir (who won the SAARC Lifetime Achievement Award), Indian writer and journalist MarkTully and Subedi (who won the SAARC Literary Awards), but also environmentalists Sant Balbir Singh Seechewal and Baba Sewa Singh from Punjab and archaeologist KK Muhammad. Each day is divided into two parts — academic discussions followed by reading sessions.
Full report here Indian Express
India is represented by a large contingent comprising Malayalam writer MT Vasudevan Nair, Hindi poet Ashok Vajpeyi and poet-lyricist Gulzar among others. “For the writers, the event dissolves borders as they discuss issues that concern all of us. For readers, it’s a time to meet the people with whose words they have become familiar,” says poet K Satchidanandan, who recited from his works That is all on Friday, the first day of the festival.
Every year, the festival focuses on a pressing issue, and the present edition is highlighting environment degradation. Hence, the list of awardees included not only Pakistani media person Hamid Mir (who won the SAARC Lifetime Achievement Award), Indian writer and journalist MarkTully and Subedi (who won the SAARC Literary Awards), but also environmentalists Sant Balbir Singh Seechewal and Baba Sewa Singh from Punjab and archaeologist KK Muhammad. Each day is divided into two parts — academic discussions followed by reading sessions.
Full report here Indian Express
Indian poets enthrall at Jubail mushaira
A celebrated poet from India enthralled the expatriate community with some of the best couplets in Urdu poetry at a mushaira (poetry evening) in Jubail on Wednesday night.
Kaleem Ajiz, who has earned many laurels and won some of the most prestigious awards, including one of India’s highest civilian awards, the Padmashree, kept the audience spellbound with his pathbreaking and refreshing poetry.
Now in his 90s, Ajiz showed absolutely no signs of his age. He was in full flow and rendered his poems in a very traditional (and yet also distinct) way. At every couplet, the audience went into a crescendo of wah-wahs and incessant clappings.
“Ajiz is beyond compare,” said Wajahat Farooqui, the force behind the organization of the event in Jubail. “His poetry reflects the pathos of the Muslim community in the Indian Subcontinent. It is an honor for us in Jubail to welcome him and to hear him is a treat.”
Full report here Arab News
Kaleem Ajiz, who has earned many laurels and won some of the most prestigious awards, including one of India’s highest civilian awards, the Padmashree, kept the audience spellbound with his pathbreaking and refreshing poetry.“Ajiz is beyond compare,” said Wajahat Farooqui, the force behind the organization of the event in Jubail. “His poetry reflects the pathos of the Muslim community in the Indian Subcontinent. It is an honor for us in Jubail to welcome him and to hear him is a treat.”
Full report here Arab News
Amrita: Life in letters
When Amrita Sher-Gil died young at 29, with speculation about the cause as much variegated as the short life she lived, she left behind a story that can be told and retold in many ways, says Poonam Goel
She may have lived to be only 29, but Amrita Sher-Gil’s persona, both as an artist of enduring repute and a woman of colourful escapades, continues to intrigue people several decades after her inexplicable death in 1941. A great many questions about her multi-dimensional life, sometimes dismissed as bohemian, sometimes revered as iconic, have now been answered, thanks to a comprehensive two-volume book titled Amrita Sher-Gil: A Self Portrait in Letters & Writings by her artist-nephew Vivan Sundaram. This long awaited publication (“it took 20 years to complete,” says Sundaram) includes primary material like Amrita’s diary entries as a young child of seven, letters to her family, friends, artist fraternity and admirers as she moved to and fro between Hungary, France, Italy and India, a journey that eventually shaped her both as an artist and an individual.
Born to a Hungarian mother and a Sikh father, Amrita’s initial years were spent studying art in Paris, though she thought she could never be tutored. Her independent streak was visible from a very young age (she was expelled from school for being an atheist), as she later mentions in a published article in The Hindu in 1936: “Although I studied, I have never been taught painting…because I possess in my psychological makeup a peculiarity that resents any outside interference...”
Full report here Deccan Herald
Born to a Hungarian mother and a Sikh father, Amrita’s initial years were spent studying art in Paris, though she thought she could never be tutored. Her independent streak was visible from a very young age (she was expelled from school for being an atheist), as she later mentions in a published article in The Hindu in 1936: “Although I studied, I have never been taught painting…because I possess in my psychological makeup a peculiarity that resents any outside interference...”
Full report here Deccan Herald
Lifetime achievement award named after Vinda
A 'Jeevan Gaurav' (lifetime achievement ) award named after eminent Marathi poet late Vinda Karandikar would be given away to deserving litterateur in the state from next year, Maharashtra chief minister Ashok Chavan said here today.
Chavan made this announcement while participating in a seminar at the 83rd All India Marathi Sahitya Sammelan. The award will carry a sum of Rs1 lakh and a citation.
He also said that the state government would announce a new policy for cultural affairs on May 1, the Maharashtra foundation day. "I would like the gathered writers to come up with suggestions to give a fresh direction to the state's cultural policy", Chavan said.
Noting that the Sammelan was being held in the golden jubilee year of Maharashtra, Chavan, in an apparent reference to demand for separate Vidarbha, said the state would remain undivided.
Full report here DNA
Chavan made this announcement while participating in a seminar at the 83rd All India Marathi Sahitya Sammelan. The award will carry a sum of Rs1 lakh and a citation.
He also said that the state government would announce a new policy for cultural affairs on May 1, the Maharashtra foundation day. "I would like the gathered writers to come up with suggestions to give a fresh direction to the state's cultural policy", Chavan said.
Noting that the Sammelan was being held in the golden jubilee year of Maharashtra, Chavan, in an apparent reference to demand for separate Vidarbha, said the state would remain undivided.
Full report here DNA
Old man on a motorcycle
His back hurts, his palms are sore, his skin is calloused and pimples have erupted on his behind. Not surprising, for this 77-year-old writer from Herefordshire in the UK has been on the road for four months on a motorcycle. Simon Gandolfi, crime writer-turned-travel writer, is still raring to go and will be on the Indian roads for another two months.
The grandfather of six took 11 months to travel from Mexico to the tip of South America, covering 66,000 km in a Honda 125, after his wife apparently got tired of having him hanging around the house.
“I never argue with her, and so I went from Mexico to the tip of South America,” says Gandolfi. The book An Old Man on a Bike came out of the trip.
Full report here Telegraph
The grandfather of six took 11 months to travel from Mexico to the tip of South America, covering 66,000 km in a Honda 125, after his wife apparently got tired of having him hanging around the house.
“I never argue with her, and so I went from Mexico to the tip of South America,” says Gandolfi. The book An Old Man on a Bike came out of the trip.
Full report here Telegraph
Talking of Assam…
Poet and author Aruni Kashyap on why he dislikes being called “writer from the North East” and how his home state Assam influences his writing. Aruni Kashyap, apart from being a poet and author, is also assistant editor of the academic research journal Yaatrâ: the Journal of Assamese Literature and Culture. His poems, fiction and non-fiction have been published across a variety of magazines and journals. He was awarded the Charles Wallace India Trust Scholarship (2009) for creative writing. In Chennai for the third edition of “Poetry with Prakriti”, he spoke about his work and his feelings about the “North-East” tag. Excerpts:
Would it be right to call you an angry young man of poetry … of Assamese poetry … or North-East poetry?
No. Actually I was speaking about this a while back. Why do you want to call me (laughs) the angry young man ... of North-East poetry?
Your themes. May be because of blurring of lines … of calling everything that side as North-Eastern poetry.
A year back, an editor requested me to write a “proper North Eastern story”. I really didn't know what it is meant to be because the North-East is a vast landscape. Assam itself has 65 tribes each with its own language, oral literature, myths of origin… so there cannot be one story there to define the North-East. But I was given the brief that such a story would probably have a lot of violence. I was disturbed because I thought it was actually perpetuating the idea of a North-East that is extremely violent.
It is true that a lot of my writing is a result of very strong rage because when I came to Delhi to study literature in 2004, I didn't know that something called “a North Eastern” existed. It challenged received identities. I grew up as an Assamese. And I grew up as an Indian.
In many ways I do identify myself as a North Eastern now. But that concept did not exist when I was growing up. What I want to project in my writing is that people are also living there … life goes on. It would not be right merely to call me only the angry young man of the North-East.
Full interview here Hindu
No. Actually I was speaking about this a while back. Why do you want to call me (laughs) the angry young man ... of North-East poetry?
Your themes. May be because of blurring of lines … of calling everything that side as North-Eastern poetry.
A year back, an editor requested me to write a “proper North Eastern story”. I really didn't know what it is meant to be because the North-East is a vast landscape. Assam itself has 65 tribes each with its own language, oral literature, myths of origin… so there cannot be one story there to define the North-East. But I was given the brief that such a story would probably have a lot of violence. I was disturbed because I thought it was actually perpetuating the idea of a North-East that is extremely violent.
It is true that a lot of my writing is a result of very strong rage because when I came to Delhi to study literature in 2004, I didn't know that something called “a North Eastern” existed. It challenged received identities. I grew up as an Assamese. And I grew up as an Indian.
In many ways I do identify myself as a North Eastern now. But that concept did not exist when I was growing up. What I want to project in my writing is that people are also living there … life goes on. It would not be right merely to call me only the angry young man of the North-East.
Full interview here Hindu
Lending his write hand
The Temple-Goers is a fine novel. Most of its characters come across as real. The plot is news by other means. The staple sex scene is comic in its tragic details . And the novel seriously tries to make sense of the India that the author, Aatish Taseer, thinks he is intimate with.
Taseer tells the story of what happens to the narrator and his girl friend, Sanyogita, both recently returned from London where they seem not to do much besides living the good life. What happens to their relationship is India, specifically Delhi. Perhaps it is the raw urges of a newly material people; or the heat that bares the brain down to the last thought; or a certain vantage point that people reach in relation to each other, an intangible terminus they arrive at along the coordinates of a place and its alluvial culture. The cumulative result is the end of a relationship.
Quirks are at the quick of the novel. For instance , the narrator, in a sustained fit of narcissistic self-validation, christens himself Aatish. Oh-Oh. And, much later in the story, he has another character — a poet, naturally — endorse the first person device. Who else would take you over the uncharted seas but I?
Full report here Times of India
Quirks are at the quick of the novel. For instance , the narrator, in a sustained fit of narcissistic self-validation, christens himself Aatish. Oh-Oh. And, much later in the story, he has another character — a poet, naturally — endorse the first person device. Who else would take you over the uncharted seas but I?
Full report here Times of India
Bringing back joy & pleasure
Last weekend, Pakistan’s rising literary stars and a handful of fiction writers, journalists and poets from India, Bangladesh, UK and the United States gathered to kick off the country’s first literary festival in the pulsing port of Karachi.
In the last ten years, authors of Pakistani English language fiction such as Mohsin Hamid, Nadeem Aslam and Mohammed Hanif have gained increased recognition in the international literary scene, winning accolades and prestigious prizes such as the Betty Trask Award, the Kuriyama Prize and the Commonwealth Writer’s Prize. But until last weekend, there had never been a forum within Pakistan to discuss and celebrate this phenomenon.
Last weekend, Pakistan’s rising literary stars and a handful of fiction writers, journalists and poets from India, Bangladesh, UK and the United States gathered to kick off the country’s first literary festival in the pulsing port of Karachi, Pakistan’s largest city and its financial and economic center. Although the festival was announced to the public merely a day before the inaugural event due to security concerns, the festival’s sessions drew an enthusiastic and diverse audience of Karachiites who listened eagerly to authors discussing their work and debating issues such as the role and challenges of contemporary South Asian English Literature.
Full report here Deccan Herald
In the last ten years, authors of Pakistani English language fiction such as Mohsin Hamid, Nadeem Aslam and Mohammed Hanif have gained increased recognition in the international literary scene, winning accolades and prestigious prizes such as the Betty Trask Award, the Kuriyama Prize and the Commonwealth Writer’s Prize. But until last weekend, there had never been a forum within Pakistan to discuss and celebrate this phenomenon.
Last weekend, Pakistan’s rising literary stars and a handful of fiction writers, journalists and poets from India, Bangladesh, UK and the United States gathered to kick off the country’s first literary festival in the pulsing port of Karachi, Pakistan’s largest city and its financial and economic center. Although the festival was announced to the public merely a day before the inaugural event due to security concerns, the festival’s sessions drew an enthusiastic and diverse audience of Karachiites who listened eagerly to authors discussing their work and debating issues such as the role and challenges of contemporary South Asian English Literature.
Full report here Deccan Herald
SAARC festival embroiled in controversy
Indian leaders skipped the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) Festival of Literature on Saturday March 27 due to a stinging write-up in the festival’s souvenir against former Indian prime minister Indira Gandhi.
Indian Vice President Hamid Ansari and Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao were supposed to address writers and academics from SAARC countries at the inaugural session. But Ansari’s secretariat drew his attention to the write-up by festival co-organiser Ajit Kaur written after Indira Gandhi’s assassination in 1984 and re-published in the souvenir the Indian vice president was supposed to release.
The state-run Indian Council for Cultural Relations Chairman Dr Karan Singh, a former union minister, attended the festival as his organisation was roped in as a co-sponsor by a non-governmental organisation (NGO), Foundation of SAARC Writers and Literature (FOSWAL). Dr Karan Singh, who is heir of the Kashmiri royal family, demanded action against Kaur for releasing the book attacking Indira Gandhi.
Ajit Kaur is a 76-year-old writer, Sahitya Akademi Award winner and president of FOSWAL, whose chairman is renowned writer Khushwant Singh while Dr Abid Hussain, former Indian ambassador to the US is the executive chairman. Kaur wrote the controversial nine-page write-up titled ‘November 1984’ and translated it to English from Punjabi. She had referred to Indira Gandhi as ‘empress’ in the write-up, which describes the ‘black and bloody days’ that stunned New Delhi on October 31, 1984.
Full report here Daily Times
Indian Vice President Hamid Ansari and Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao were supposed to address writers and academics from SAARC countries at the inaugural session. But Ansari’s secretariat drew his attention to the write-up by festival co-organiser Ajit Kaur written after Indira Gandhi’s assassination in 1984 and re-published in the souvenir the Indian vice president was supposed to release.
The state-run Indian Council for Cultural Relations Chairman Dr Karan Singh, a former union minister, attended the festival as his organisation was roped in as a co-sponsor by a non-governmental organisation (NGO), Foundation of SAARC Writers and Literature (FOSWAL). Dr Karan Singh, who is heir of the Kashmiri royal family, demanded action against Kaur for releasing the book attacking Indira Gandhi.
Ajit Kaur is a 76-year-old writer, Sahitya Akademi Award winner and president of FOSWAL, whose chairman is renowned writer Khushwant Singh while Dr Abid Hussain, former Indian ambassador to the US is the executive chairman. Kaur wrote the controversial nine-page write-up titled ‘November 1984’ and translated it to English from Punjabi. She had referred to Indira Gandhi as ‘empress’ in the write-up, which describes the ‘black and bloody days’ that stunned New Delhi on October 31, 1984.
Full report here Daily Times
REVIEW: The Veiled Suite
REVIEW
The Veiled Suite: The Collected Poems
Agha Shahid Ali
Penguin
Pp 400
ISBN: 9780143068631
Paperback
Blurb
The Veiled Suite collects the life’s work of Kashmiri-American poet Agha Shahid Ali. Drawing from a remarkable range of sources that span continents and cultures, Ali displays an “imagination . . . supple and cultivated enough to draw on different cultures simultaneously” (New York Times Book Review). This definitive volume, Ali’s shining legacy, is a testament to the revolutionary voice that introduced the form of the ghazal to the American poetic lexicon—and brought the physical and emotional landscape of Kashmir to an audience of devoted readers.
Beginning with the impassioned, never-before-published title poem, written after a dream related to Ali’s illness, The Veiled Suite moves through themes of mourning and loss, culminating in the ghazals of Call Me Ishmael Tonight. In one of his early poems, “Postcard from Kashmir”, Ali reflects on the four-by-six-inch, “overexposed” nature of his homeland’s postcard existence. A poignant nostalgia for Kashmir pervades his work, but it is tinged with rage and despair in political poems that address the country’s struggles; “Hans Christian Ostro”, an homage to the Norwegian hostage killed in Kashmir in 1995, is one such poem: “a beggar, ears pressed to the metal cry, / will keep waiting on a ghost platform, / holding back his tears, waving every train / Goodbye and Goodbye.”
Ali also maps the geographical and psychological terrain of his second home in A Nostalgist’s Map of America, acting as a cartographer and stargazer as he meditates on themes of journey and exile, myth and politics, history and loss. And in “Lenox Hill”, the first poem in Rooms Are Never Finished (a finalist for the National Book Award in 2001), loss is felt deeply and truthfully as Ali mourns the death of his mother: “. . . But there were times, Mother, / while you slept, that I prayed, ‘Saints, let her die.’ / Not, I swear by you, that I wished you to die / but to save you as you were, young, in song in Kashmir. . . .”
A seminal work of beauty and cultural significance, The Veiled Suite pays tribute to the work of a beloved and much-missed member of the literary community. Ali died in December of 2001.
Reviews
Parallel Lines Converge Outlook
Agha Shahid Ali’s poetic persona embraced modernist reticence as well as the cacophony of Indic traditions
It is not easy to review the “collected poems” of any poet worth his salt in 750 words—though it is remarkable how little salt so many of them get by on! It is practically impossible to review the collected poems of a much-loved poet who is struck dead in his prime—the too-soon-collected oeuvre acquires a kind of retrospective immunity. It is entirely of a piece with Agha Shahid Ali’s legendary generosity that he makes this task so easy.
Because there is really very little to be said about The Veiled Suite, Agha Shahid Ali’s collected poems, beyond this: go get it! Ali was crafting a remarkable poetical career when he was diagnosed with a brain tumour. That he continued to practise his cunning craft even under the shadow of that diagnosis is a tribute to his courage. But it is important to rescue his poetry from under that marmoreal fate. Because Ali’s poetry is diverse, playful, mischievous and even under the imperative of a demanding history—sad Kashmir—graceful, along with being melancholy and, yes, angry, too.
Agha Shahid Ali
Penguin
Rs 350
ISBN: 9780143068631
Paperback
Blurb
The Veiled Suite collects the life’s work of Kashmiri-American poet Agha Shahid Ali. Drawing from a remarkable range of sources that span continents and cultures, Ali displays an “imagination . . . supple and cultivated enough to draw on different cultures simultaneously” (New York Times Book Review). This definitive volume, Ali’s shining legacy, is a testament to the revolutionary voice that introduced the form of the ghazal to the American poetic lexicon—and brought the physical and emotional landscape of Kashmir to an audience of devoted readers.
Beginning with the impassioned, never-before-published title poem, written after a dream related to Ali’s illness, The Veiled Suite moves through themes of mourning and loss, culminating in the ghazals of Call Me Ishmael Tonight. In one of his early poems, “Postcard from Kashmir”, Ali reflects on the four-by-six-inch, “overexposed” nature of his homeland’s postcard existence. A poignant nostalgia for Kashmir pervades his work, but it is tinged with rage and despair in political poems that address the country’s struggles; “Hans Christian Ostro”, an homage to the Norwegian hostage killed in Kashmir in 1995, is one such poem: “a beggar, ears pressed to the metal cry, / will keep waiting on a ghost platform, / holding back his tears, waving every train / Goodbye and Goodbye.”
Ali also maps the geographical and psychological terrain of his second home in A Nostalgist’s Map of America, acting as a cartographer and stargazer as he meditates on themes of journey and exile, myth and politics, history and loss. And in “Lenox Hill”, the first poem in Rooms Are Never Finished (a finalist for the National Book Award in 2001), loss is felt deeply and truthfully as Ali mourns the death of his mother: “. . . But there were times, Mother, / while you slept, that I prayed, ‘Saints, let her die.’ / Not, I swear by you, that I wished you to die / but to save you as you were, young, in song in Kashmir. . . .”
A seminal work of beauty and cultural significance, The Veiled Suite pays tribute to the work of a beloved and much-missed member of the literary community. Ali died in December of 2001.
Reviews
Parallel Lines Converge Outlook
Agha Shahid Ali’s poetic persona embraced modernist reticence as well as the cacophony of Indic traditions
It is not easy to review the “collected poems” of any poet worth his salt in 750 words—though it is remarkable how little salt so many of them get by on! It is practically impossible to review the collected poems of a much-loved poet who is struck dead in his prime—the too-soon-collected oeuvre acquires a kind of retrospective immunity. It is entirely of a piece with Agha Shahid Ali’s legendary generosity that he makes this task so easy.
Because there is really very little to be said about The Veiled Suite, Agha Shahid Ali’s collected poems, beyond this: go get it! Ali was crafting a remarkable poetical career when he was diagnosed with a brain tumour. That he continued to practise his cunning craft even under the shadow of that diagnosis is a tribute to his courage. But it is important to rescue his poetry from under that marmoreal fate. Because Ali’s poetry is diverse, playful, mischievous and even under the imperative of a demanding history—sad Kashmir—graceful, along with being melancholy and, yes, angry, too.
The ketchup man
As a student at IIM Ahmedabad, Chetan Bhagat founded a magazine, Tomato Ketchup. Even at IIM-A, not the most literary of places, Tomato... was reportedly considered lowbrow and died a premature death. Bhagat’s subsequent literary forays have seen more popular success but continue to be considered lowbrow.
But Bhagat need not fret. The novel genre itself was considered lowbrow and commercial during its early days. As Daniel Defoe, often considered the first novelist, said, “Writing itself has become a very considerable branch of the English commerce. The booksellers are the master manufacturers, or employers. The several authors, copiers, sub-writers and other operators with Pen and Ink are the workmen employed by the said manufacturer.” Ian Watt, author of the classic The Rise of the Novel, says Defoe’s style was considered to be ‘easy, copious and unpremeditated’ in contrast to the ‘verbal grace, complication of structure...’ of the prevalent literary culture.
Watt argues that while the early novels may not have been masterfully crafted, they were revolutionary in their movement away from Classical Idealism towards a greater empathy for individual imperfection. They also understood the needs of the rapidly rising, newly literate, industrial revolution-created bourgeoisie. These two seminal course changes, in structure and audience, by the early novelists laid much of the foundation for the development of modern literature.
Full article here Outlook
Watt argues that while the early novels may not have been masterfully crafted, they were revolutionary in their movement away from Classical Idealism towards a greater empathy for individual imperfection. They also understood the needs of the rapidly rising, newly literate, industrial revolution-created bourgeoisie. These two seminal course changes, in structure and audience, by the early novelists laid much of the foundation for the development of modern literature.
Full article here Outlook
George Orwell book sold for $128,000
The first edition of a George Orwell book signed by the author has fetched 86,000 pounds ($128,000) at an auction.
The 1930s edition of the semi-autobiographical novel Down and Out in Paris and London was impeccably preserved, and still had its dust cover, a spokesman for the Lewes auction house said.
The book, which contains a dedication to Orwell's agent dated Christmas Eve 1932, was expected to bring in a maximum of 3,500 pounds.
Full report here Hindustan Times
The book, which contains a dedication to Orwell's agent dated Christmas Eve 1932, was expected to bring in a maximum of 3,500 pounds.
Full report here Hindustan Times
Bangalore library gutted in fire
More than 20,000 books were gutted when a fire broke out in a library run by a private trust in Bangalore in the wee hours today, police said. Two fire tenders took half an hour to douse the flames, they said.
Manjunath, trust owner and a BJP member, in his police complaint alleged that the fire was the handiwork of a JDS candidate, Anjanappa, who is contesting the coming polls to city corporation from Padmanabhanagar ward, where the library is located.
Police said investigations were on.
Full report here PTI
Related news
Poll library reduces library to ashes Deccan Herald
Manjunath, trust owner and a BJP member, in his police complaint alleged that the fire was the handiwork of a JDS candidate, Anjanappa, who is contesting the coming polls to city corporation from Padmanabhanagar ward, where the library is located.
Police said investigations were on.
Full report here PTI
Related news
Poll library reduces library to ashes Deccan Herald
Author arrested for "offensive" books against Buddhism
Human rights activists have urged Sri Lankan authorities to free Sarah Malanie Perera who was arrested under the country’s stringent emergency laws last week for writing two books allegedly offensive to Buddhism.
Perera, a Sinhalese who converted from Buddhism to Islam more than 10 years ago, is a resident of Bahrain. She was on her way back to Bahrain from Colombo last week after spending three months here when she was arrested.
She compiled the two books written in Sinhalese while in Colombo and had got it printed here. According to reports, Perera was sending some copies through freight when she was apprehended. The arrest of the 38-year-old author came in the same week the Sri Lankan government said it will not allow rapper and R&B singer Akon to perform in Colombo because one of his music videos was found to have demeaned Buddhism.
Police here have remained tight-lipped about Perera’s arrest. Police spokesperson, SSP P Jayakody, told HT that he was waiting to get more details from the concerned police officers. "I have asked for a report,’’ he said. The Bahrain-based Gulf Daily News reported that the Bahrain Human Rights Society (BHRS) secretary-general Dr Abdulla Al Deerazi has said that it would do everything it could to bring her back.
Full report here Hindustan Times
Perera, a Sinhalese who converted from Buddhism to Islam more than 10 years ago, is a resident of Bahrain. She was on her way back to Bahrain from Colombo last week after spending three months here when she was arrested.
She compiled the two books written in Sinhalese while in Colombo and had got it printed here. According to reports, Perera was sending some copies through freight when she was apprehended. The arrest of the 38-year-old author came in the same week the Sri Lankan government said it will not allow rapper and R&B singer Akon to perform in Colombo because one of his music videos was found to have demeaned Buddhism.
Police here have remained tight-lipped about Perera’s arrest. Police spokesperson, SSP P Jayakody, told HT that he was waiting to get more details from the concerned police officers. "I have asked for a report,’’ he said. The Bahrain-based Gulf Daily News reported that the Bahrain Human Rights Society (BHRS) secretary-general Dr Abdulla Al Deerazi has said that it would do everything it could to bring her back.
Full report here Hindustan Times
Review: Midnight’s Diaspora
REVIEW
Midnight’s Diaspora: Encounters with Salman Rushdie
Ed. Daniel Herwitz and Ashutosh Varshney.
Penguin/Viking, New Delhi.
Pages 149. Rs 399.
Ed. Daniel Herwitz and Ashutosh Varshney.
Penguin/Viking, New Delhi.
Pages 149. Rs 399.
Blurbs
Almost twenty years after the Ayatollah Khomeini declared a fatwa against him, Salman Rushdie remains the most controversial and perhaps the most famous living novelist. Far more than an acclaimed author, Rushdie is a global figure whose work is read and studied by a wide variety of constituencies, many of whom are not primarily concerned with its literary significance. This important collection of essays and interviews brings together a distinguished group of critics and commentators, including Rushdie himself, to explore the political and cultural contexts of Rushdie's novels. While each of the essays offers a distinct and often highly original take on Rushdie and his work, the two substantial interviews with Rushdie illuminate his thoughts on a series of literary and political subjects that he has for the most part been reluctant to discuss in public.
This combination of fresh perspectives and historical and political context will appeal to a wide array of readers interested not only in Rushdie's own work but also in the many collateral cultural and political issues it raises. Daniel Herwitz is Director, Institute for the Humanities; Professor of History of Art, Professor of Philosophy and Professor of Comparative Literature, College of Literature, Science, and the Arts; and Professor of Art and Design, School of Art and Design, at the University of Michigan. Ashutosh Varshney is Professor of Political Science at the Brown University.
"The never-ending inventiveness of Salman Rushdie's mind and art makes this volume both a pleasure and a necessity. These distinguished scholars have done a fine job introducing Rushdie's work to a new generation of readers in a newcentury." ---Homi K. Bhahba, Harvard University "
This collection engages with the larger context of Rushdie's work to reflect on the urgent issues raised by Rushdie's novels and their afterlives. The essays are first rate, achieving accessibility without sacrificing rigor and depth and bringing a variety of disciplinary perspectives to offer a fresh understanding of Rushdie's writings. This is rare." Gyan Prakash, Princeton University
My name is Salman The Tribune
Almost twenty years after the Ayatollah Khomeini declared a fatwa against him, Salman Rushdie remains the most controversial and perhaps the most famous living novelist. Far more than an acclaimed author, Rushdie is a global figure whose work is read and studied by a wide variety of constituencies, many of whom are not primarily concerned with its literary significance. This important collection of essays and interviews brings together a distinguished group of critics and commentators, including Rushdie himself, to explore the political and cultural contexts of Rushdie's novels. While each of the essays offers a distinct and often highly original take on Rushdie and his work, the two substantial interviews with Rushdie illuminate his thoughts on a series of literary and political subjects that he has for the most part been reluctant to discuss in public.
This combination of fresh perspectives and historical and political context will appeal to a wide array of readers interested not only in Rushdie's own work but also in the many collateral cultural and political issues it raises. Daniel Herwitz is Director, Institute for the Humanities; Professor of History of Art, Professor of Philosophy and Professor of Comparative Literature, College of Literature, Science, and the Arts; and Professor of Art and Design, School of Art and Design, at the University of Michigan. Ashutosh Varshney is Professor of Political Science at the Brown University.
"The never-ending inventiveness of Salman Rushdie's mind and art makes this volume both a pleasure and a necessity. These distinguished scholars have done a fine job introducing Rushdie's work to a new generation of readers in a newcentury." ---Homi K. Bhahba, Harvard University "
This collection engages with the larger context of Rushdie's work to reflect on the urgent issues raised by Rushdie's novels and their afterlives. The essays are first rate, achieving accessibility without sacrificing rigor and depth and bringing a variety of disciplinary perspectives to offer a fresh understanding of Rushdie's writings. This is rare." Gyan Prakash, Princeton University
My name is Salman The Tribune
Twenty years ago, as I left India to study literature at Cambridge, a fatwa was issued against an up-and-coming author that was to become an avid topic of dinner-time conversations for months to come. I was the new arrival from a country that had just banned Salman Rushdie’s The Satanic Verses and was forced to take positions at all such discussions between sub-continent sentiments and literary forthrightness. I remember having put up a Rushdie poster on my study wall at that time, and clearly, I must have upset somebody because late one evening, a snowball smashed into my window pane. I am still not sure whether it was a racist attack or a moment of sport.
Taking stock of the situation after two decades, I think that Rushdie has emerged the more triumphant after the ordeal. Eight successful books later, we are able to assess his celebrity status—not least because of his notoriety in both hemispheres—in the course of two interviews and several essays collected together in this volume by its editors.
Rushdie invites controversy. His every remark becomes fodder for the papparazzi not just as gossip or rumour but as significant political insight. His books, on their part, initiate mini revolutions owing to their author’s political boldness. When Rushdie, who had just won the Booker for Midnight’s Children, was invited to 10 Downing Street for a luncheon hosted for Indira Gandhi by Thatcher, he declined knowing fully well how Mrs Gandhi would react on seeing him when both she and her late son, Sanjay, were exposed in his novel for the roles they played during the Emergency.
Arundhati Roy discusses democracy
Among the audience members were actor Woody Harrelson and novelist Alice Walker. What makes a really great writer, person, and rebel–is someone who listens more than he or she talks,” said Walker in her opening words for the evening. “Someone who goes to where the silence is, and tries to understand why it is there.”
If listening is one thing that Roy does well, telling a story is something she does even better.
Throughout the evening, Roy touched on heavy topics such as the “mutation of democracy” in India, Kashmir’s struggle for independence and the oppression of it’s people by the Indian governement, as well as the displacement of thousands of people from the Narmada Dam project.
Full report here Mission Local. org
Class struggle
Mariam Karim's The Betrayal of Selvamary is about the hypocrisy of the well-heeled...
Mariam Karim, writer of The Betrayal of Selvamary — her maiden effort as a playwright — is an interesting mixture of the conservative and the liberal. While her play exposes the class, caste and communal mindset of the well-heeled with a ruthless confidence, her own reluctance to venture into the city on her own or rearrange domestic commitments are distinctly, if sweetly, suggestive of upper middle class correctness.
The Betrayal... rips off the mask of benevolence many an honourable citizen would be found wearing. It also presents us with a set of people of the type we are used to seeing in urban environments across India: an architect, a corporate head, a well-educated mother of two, an ex-model, a poet, and so on. Mariam admits her characters are ‘regular' kinds of people caught in an extraordinary situation.
But as to whether she showed the play to her friends and whether anyone caught a reflection in the mirror, she answers with a simple, “Oh yes, they've all liked it very much.” But then, Mariam is used to being taken seriously. Her first novel, My Little Boat, published by Penguin, was nominated for the Dublin International IMPAC Award and the Hutch Crossword Award. Her second, The Bereavement of Agnes Desmoulins, was long-listed for the Man Asian Literary Prize in 2009 even before publication.
Full report here The Hindu
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