My mother passed away peacefully yesterday morning after a final two-week battle with the cancer. She had fought bravely and well for close to six years. Only the final few days were difficult, and we are grateful that she had a peaceful end, surrounded by her loved ones.
More here.…one of the voices of a generation of middle-class Indian youth facing the choices and frustrations that come with the prospect of growing wealth.
Outlook has this extract from Patrick French’s new book about V.S.Naipaul. Here is Minoo Bhandara, a Parsi newspaper columnist who ran Pakistan’s only brewery, on his first meeting with the visiting writer:
“…I picked him up from the airport. He was standing there sullenly and I said, ‘Dr Livingstone, I presume?’ He went, ‘Yes, yes, yes.’ I took him around for a few days. I had no idea he was romantically involved. Nadira was a good friend of mine, a journalistic butterfly. She was a chirpy little thing, bright, known to a lot of important people…. I mentioned that my sister was a novelist, Bapsi Sidhwa, but he wasn’t interested. When I asked him who his favourite writers were he said, ‘My father.’ Later I sent a letter to him in England, but didn’t get a reply. A friend of mine said maybe my letter contained grammatical mistakes….”
Also note Nadira’s description of how Naipaul proposed:
“When the party was coming to an end, Nadira heard that a girlfriend of Mazdak’s had been present, and an argument began. While she was screaming at him at around 3 am, the telephone rang and a voice said, “Is Margaret there? I have to speak to her.” “Margaret who?” asked Mazdak, and Nadira snatched the telephone, realising who was on the other end. “Come now to the hotel, I need to talk to you,” said Vidia. She refused, but agreed to come at 8.30. Nadira went to bed, furious, and when she arrived at the hotel a few hours later, Vidia was still wearing his clothes from the night before. In her recollection, “He looked wild. His hair was all over the place. I said, ‘Are you OK?’ He asked me not to go, and then he said, ‘Will you consider one day being Lady Naipaul?’ I knew Pat was dying and Margaret was finished…. It was not that I was trying to displace a dying woman and an old floozy…”
The rest, about Naipaul’s treatment of his wife and mistress, is even more sordid.
From Amos Oz’s acceptance speech for the Prince of Asturias Award for Literature.
I believe in literature as a bridge between peoples. I believe curiosity can be a moral quality. I believe imagining the other can be an antidote to fanaticism. Imagining the other will make you not only a better businessperson or a better lover but even a better person.
Got this note via email:
A campus performance of The Vagina Monologues at the Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai,
on March 1st and 2nd
at 6:45pm
at the Naoroji (new) Campus, Deonar, Mumbai.
The production is student-acted and has been directed communally by all the students involved. The proceeds from the show will be forwarded to SNEHA, which works with women and children who are victims/survivors of domestic violence in Dharavi. This is the first authorised campus performance of the play in South Asia this year, and is done completely by non-actors.
Desh is growing up…here’s a picture from November last year:
And now, two months and a haircut later, he’s off to school…
Desh now has a baby brother. Here’s a first look at little Megh, who arrived on Saturday 12 January.
Eunice de Souza wonders.Yes of course we must celebrate Bandra. If we can get there, that is. I spent an hour and a quarter getting there to meet Nalini Jones who has just published a book of short stories based on Bandra. So when I decided to see the play “Jazz,” based on Goan jazz musicians (researched by Naresh Fernandes) I left an hour earlier, only to find the entire area had suffered a power failure. We milled around in the dark, with everyone remarkably good-natured about it all. The play could only begin an hour later than scheduled.
Traffic and power cuts are all in a day’s work. What’s surprising was to find Bandra described online, as a “small Catholic town in rural India.” (Introduction to interview with Knopf editor Carol Janeway), and “a Catholic town in India” elsewhere. And there was Amit Chaudhuri, for whom there can be no excuse, putting his foot in it again. “Nalini Jones,” he says in a review, “writes about the marginal community of Christians in Bombay and the neighbourhoods in which they live.
To the outsider, these seem to possess a fabled calm, but the insider knows they are in many ways on the brink of dissolution.” I don’t know whether Chaudhuri means Christians are on the brink of dissolution, or the neighbourhoods in which they live are.
Does Chaudhuri see himself as the insider who knows?
Email from Zubaan Books:
On FRIDAY 7th December
Please join us to celebrate the launch of Anjum Hasan’s brilliant debut novel, set in Shillong, Lunatic in My Head, published by Zubaan and Penguin Books India. The author will be in conversation with Siddhartha Deb, author of Surface and Point of Return.
All are welcome, but seating is limited, so do come early and join us for tea from 6:30 onwards, at The Attic (above The Shop), 36 Regal Building, Sansad Marg (Parliament Street), New Delhi 110 001.
And if you’d like to order the book, you can do so via our website.
On Saturday 8th December
Zubaan is co-hosting a discussion about Masculinities and Literature, entitled Let’s Talk Men. Panellists: Rana Dasgupta, Anjum Hasan, Mukul Kesavan and Geetanjali Shree.
Venue: ML Bhartia Auditorium, Alliance Francaise, 72 Lodi Estate, New Delhi
Time: 6:00pm
For more information about this, and the other events during this week, click here or call 91-11-46057340, or 41640681
*****
Email from PEN All-India Centre:
THE PEN ALL-INDIA CENTRE announces a new monthly feature, “Spiritlevel@PEN” - a forum for the critical yet sympathetic discussion of the questions of philosophy, religion, spirituality, mystical quest and the many dimensions of being that lie beyond the rigid binary of belief vs rationalism. The inaugural edition of Spiritlevel@PEN hosts THE VENERABLE LHAKDOR-LA speaking on ‘Faith and Reason in the Dharma’
Date: 13 December 2007 (Thursday)
Time: 6.15 pm
Place: Theosophy Hall (3rd floor), 40 New Marine Lines, Churchgate, Mumbai 400 020
The Venerable Lhakdor-la is the former official translator of His Holiness the Dalai Lama, and is the author and translator of numerous books. In 2000, he was appointed a member of the Advisory Board of the Institute of Tibetan Classics, Montreal ; from 2002, he has been Honorary Professor at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver , Canada. The Ven. Lhakdor-la will be introduced by ASPI MISTRY, member, Executive Committee of the PEN All-India Centre and President of the Dharma Rain Centre.
This piece in The Hindu about defending the reviled:
“Come on, why should lawyers defend someone who is so ‘obviously guilty’?”The rest here.Although this may sound like self-serving lawyer-talk, the question of guilt, “obvious” or otherwise, is for the court and not for the lawyer — or for the press…
Even at seven months, I hadn’t quite been able to believe in this pregnancy. I don’t know how it is for other women, but for me it was never quite true, never really happening – and that was my way of protecting myself against another miscarriage.
Via snail mail, the news that Osians Literary Agency has been running from May this year and has signed its first set of writers, including Saeed Mirza, Omair Ahmad and Jaitirth Rao. Also journalists Sheela Reddy and Shailaja Bajpai for their first novels. Take a look at www.osians.com.
Email from Urban Voice:
As you might know we have already brought out two issues of Urban Voice, the literary magazine. Now the third issue is due… for which we seek contributions in the form of non-fiction, journalism, short fiction, plays and poetry for this issue. The underlining theme for this issue will be Writers and Cities… The pieces should be around 1,000 -1,500 words, though exceptions may be considered. More details at www.frogbooks.net
Email from the Seagull Foundation for the Arts:
Choice is a youth leadership programme that inspires and unearths young social entrepreneurs. As the first step towards this, Choice is offering internships to young people in alternative and non-profit organizations across the country, focusing on different aspects of development, from the environment to child abuse to alternative education to socially concerned theatre…All internships include a monthly stipend, and, if relocated to a different city, travel and accommodation costs. Choice is now looking for candidates for internship who are ideally:
·Between 18 and 25 years of age
·Enthusiastic, with the aptitude for working in an area of social concern
·Willing to relocate to another Indian metroLast date: December 31, 2007.
Contact: Bishan Samaddar
The Seagull Foundation for the Arts
26 Circus Avenue, Calcutta 700 017
E-mail: bishanATchoicemakers.org
We found this tiny kitten outside our kitchen window one morning last month. She had obviously been left there by someone who knew that we would try to find her a safe place to stay. I wish we could have given her a home ourselves, but there’s too much chaos Chez Nous right now, especially with a large dog, an assertive cat and a curious baby already in the house, and one more baby on the way. WSD has graciously taken Manasi in and given her a name and a place to stay until she finds a friendly home. Would you like to adopt this delightful two-month old kitten? If so, please mail me or contact WSD!
…after a long break. I have been preoccupied with many things:
- my mother’s recurrence of cancer, this time with metastasis beyond the abdomen. She is now on a stiff course of chemotherapy - she’s a brave lady.
- my beloved eight-year old dog, Whisky, has just had surgery for a spleenectomy.
- Desh hasn’t been well this month.
- and I had a fall three weeks ago. I fell on my back - and fortunately, nothing terrible happened except that I was left with an aching back and days of enforced rest - but what a scare it gave me.
*****
I wanted to link to this report about a theatrical performance by trained elephants.
And here is a story about dogs being worshipped in Nepal.
(thanks, Abodh)
Two films released recently received far less attention than they deserved. While both are classifiable as noirish thrillers, they as far removed from each other, in their treatments, as mofussil India and the glittering metropolis. Navdeep Singh’s debut feature film “Manorama Six Feet Under” is set in a back-of-beyond desert town in Rajasthan, while Sriram Raghavan’s “Johnny Gaddaar” is set in fast-track Mumbai. In the first, we’re unraveling a web of crime and intrigue alongside the unlikely amateur investigator, in the other, we’re watching how the murderer is going to cover his tracks. “Johnny Gaddaar” moves with thrilling speed, “Manorama” with thrilling slowness.
“Darlingji: The True Love Story of Nargis and Sunil Dutt” by Kishwar Desai
HarperCollins, Rs 395
Fifty years ago, when a 28-year old Sunil Dutt rushed to save Nargis from a fire that broke out on the sets of “Mother India”, the two actors – who were playing mother and son in Mehboob Khan’s 1957 epic – went on to fall in love and eventually marry. It became the best known “true love story” of the movies, alluded to and echoed as recently as in this year’s Diwali release, Farah Khan’s “Om Shanti Om” when Shahrukh (playing a junior actor) saves Deepika (playing the star female lead) from a circle of burning haystacks.
Have been offline, preoccupied with some stuff. More on that later. Meanwhile I just wanted to say how much I liked Anurag Kashyap’s new film. No Smoking has a cool plot, dark humour, great music, some nice Bombay moments, and an elegant performance by John Abraham… And it’s visually so good. Yes, there are a few moments that are over-clever, but so what. And mmm, I liked the Jesse Randhawa-Adnan Sami tribute to Bob Fosse.
I had problems with Black Friday despite liking a lot about the film. But No Smoking is very very confident, and very nice. As far as I’m concerned, the critics who have panned the film can go take a hike.*
*****
(Added later, now that I’ve found some time)
What I liked:
the open blue skies;
the hallucinatory imagery;
the distant, unhappy wife; the busty, all-over-him secretary;
the dusty dhurries, the dirt, the biometric screening;
the descent into deeper and deeper levels of the underground, like the deepest circles of hell;
the weird efficiency of the call-centre at the prayogshala;
the sameness of those faces - the taxi driver, the security guard, the man in the lift…
eating out at night - and outside the restaurant, meeting old friend Abbas Tyrewala, cross-eyed, wearing a hearing aid, and with two of his fingers missing. oh, and that weird drunk, too.
the memory of K’s first cigarette with Abbas.
Ae ajnabee…
the stylish music.
the murky haze of the sea-view from Worli. Avarsekar Heights?
the dreamlike strangeness of night-time Bombay… the rows and rows of car headlights, their reflections shimmering in the dark water.
—-
*As for the quarrel between Anurag Kashyap and Khalid Mohammed, part of it has been quite entertaining, I have to say, and it’sbeen good - or at least cleansing - to see someone speaking their mind in an industry that’s mostly built on dishonesty and vacuous smiles. But now the ad hominem attacks are getting rather tiresome and embarrassing, and it’s time for both of them to get a move on.
Outlook has this Q & A with Ashish Nandy:
Will the loss of Test cricket be lamented in India?Read the whole thing, it’s here.We have lost the language of lament in modern India. That is why Indian creativity in social knowledge has been so cramped. Modernity can become creative only when you have thinkers like Nietzsche or Dostoevsky, who recognise what we have lost in being modern. That sense of loss humanises society. We Indians are only supposed to celebrate the gains of progress, not the losses. I doubt if many will miss Test cricket.
…
Why do Bollywood and cricket unite India?
They do so because only three areas of our life—cricket, cinema (Bollywood) and crime—recognise capability wholeheartedly and unconditionally. Unlike other channels of social mobility, these have no caste or religious prejudices and are least bothered about social background and polish. That’s why all three areas have become so important for so many Indians and have acquired a pan-Indian presence. They are the three most popular professions today.
Today, October 2, is the International Day of Non-Violence.
A poem by Wislawa Szymborska:
The End and the Beginning
After every war
someone has to clean up.
Things won’t
straighten themselves up, after all.
Someone has to push the rubble
to the sides of the road,
so the corpse-laden wagons can pass.Someone has to get mired
in scum and ashes,
sofa-springs,
splintered glass,
and bloody rags.Someone must drag in a girder
to prop up a wall.
Someone must glaze a window,
rehang a door.Photogenic it’s not,
and takes years.
All the cameras have left
for another war.Again we’ll need bridges
and new railway stations.Sleeves will go ragged
from rolling them up.
Someone, broom in hand,
still recalls how it was.
Someone listens
and nods with unsevered head.
Yet others milling about
already find it dull.From behind the bush
sometimes someone still unearths
rust-eaten arguments
and carries them to the garbage pile.Those who knew
what was going on here
must give way to
those who know little.
And less than little.
And finally as little as nothing.In the grass which has overgrown
causes and effects,
someone must be stretched out,
blade of grass in his mouth,
gazing at the clouds.
This three-line poem by the late Burmese poet Tin Moe. Reportedly, he later found these lines etched on a prison wall by an unknown inmate.
Cigar’s burnt down
The sun is brown
Will somebody take me home?
Slate on the “unbearable whiteness” of Wes Anderson’s Darjeeling Limited.“Beware of any film in which an entire race and culture is turned into therapeutic scenery.”
Roger Ebert on Rajnesh Domalpalli’s Vanaja.“In any Indian film, many of the pleasures are tactile. There are the glorious colors of saris and room decorations, the dazzle of dance costumes and the dusty landscape that somehow becomes a watercolor by Edward Lear, with its hills and vistas, its oxen and elephants, its houses that seem part of the land.”
