Urbanisation in the Indian context (as well as the global milieu) is a much scrutinised phenomenon, particularly when analysing the dangers of population explosion — an inevitable and unwelcome byproduct of the process. While Mumbai’s imposing slums serve as a microcosm for viewing the banalities of city planning, it is rare to find opinions that claim Dharavi as a “mature (urban) formation”...Read Profile
The Legacy Of Amar Chitra Katha
30/06/2009
In the fall of 2001, an American scholar named Karline McLain arrived in Mumbai. She had come to spend a year researching the comic books of Amar Chitra Katha. She began at the Amar Chitra Katha studio where she was given a desk and access to the staff, the readers of the comic book and its founding editor, Anant Pai Earlier, she had corresponded with Pai, and he had welcomed the project...Read Profile
'A Play Between Darkness And Light'
30/06/2009
Chandrahas Choudhury believes that the 'excitement' of writing fiction stems from the process of 'setting up' all the 'coordinates' of the character's history and environment. As a professional book reviewer and a voracious reader, he has on countless occasions dismantled the matrices that constitute myriad works of literature prior to debuting as a novelist with Arzee The Dwarf...Read Profile
The Merchant Of Magic
05/06/2009
Belief in alchemy notwithstanding and given the impossibility of finding the philosopher’s stone; there is however little doubt to the fact that the novels of Paulo Coelho have virtually attained ‘eternal life’ through the universal appeal they have garnered over the last few years. Coelho’s The Alchemist which is one of the bestselling books in history has been escalated to cult status as the most revered fable of hope worldwide....Read Profile
Kamala Das (1934-2009)
04/06/2009
Very early in her writing life, Kamala Suraiya (also known as Kamala Das) had made it clear to readers, critics and family that she did not want to be “categorized’ and contained, and that’s just the way it was. All her life, she kept us guessing about what she was going to write, say and do next, while sticking to that early resolution she had made for herself – to say what she felt in the way she wanted to say it....Read Profile
“As A Writer You Can't Be Self Indulgent”
01/06/2009
Even though it may seem some what unexpected coming from a versatile, veteran, Bastiat Prize (2007) winning journalist and blogger, Amit Varma insists that he has always been a novelist first. The reason why his debut in the world of literary fiction My Friend Sancho (Hachette India, 2009), makes its appearance lies in the sloth that comes with “Bengali genes...Read Profile
History's Laughter Club
01/06/2009
Stop Me If You’ve Heard This was the title of the book I had picked up, casually browsing in a bookshop. I quickly realised it was a kind of joke book, and having come across too many of those (I’m sure you have to) for my liking was going to put it away when its subtitle caught my eye: ‘A History and Philosophy of Jokes’. This I had not seen before. Curious, I read from the jacket blurb and discovered the author...Read Profile
'Indians Need To Be Unsentimental'
25/05/2009
With Dead On Time (HarperCollins India), Lord Meghnad Desai, Professor Emeritus of the London School of Economics (LSE), has entered the world of thriller and fiction. Simply put, the novel is a day in the life of Harry White, Britain’s charismatic and politically-savvy prime minister. Desai speaks to Sanjitha Rao Chaini on his views on India's new government the UPA’s immediate tasks, learnings for an economist...Read Profile
Lost Books
25/05/2009
A book can be lost on us, but it is hard to imagine that a book could be entirely lost to us. Today, when books are backed up and Google-linked, we can hunt down a book by just browsing, or looking hard enough for a copy. And yet there are many versions of lostness: writers who write but don’t publish (Salinger) writers who wish to destroy their work (Kafka asking his literary executor to burn all his books)...Read Profile
In The Customers’ Shoes
18/05/2009
In Wired to Care; How Companies Prosper When they Create Widespread Empathy, Dev Patnaik along with Peter Mortensen stress on the need for the companies to step into the customers’ shoes to be able to find out what they really require as opposed to what they are receiving. Patnaik who teaches at a special class called Needfinding at Stanford University encourages through examples and role-playing...Read Profile
