Comments on: Sartaj, Again

by: Dahlia Sen

Tue, 29 Aug 2006 14:05:42 +0100

In this recent interview with the Hindustan Times, I was very intrigued to read that Chandra listens to music while writing. He has extremely good taste in music....

Going for the kill Aditya Sinha New Delhi, August 27, 2006 Vikram Chandra listens to Hindi film music while he writes. And considering it took him over seven years to write his latest novel, Sacred Games, a 900-page thriller that has propelled him to the pantheon of Indian writing, he must have heard a lot of songs. No wonder, then, the main characters in Sacred Games are often singing or humming a tune, whether it is Inspector Sartaj Singh (Main zindagi ka saath nibhaata chala gaya) or the Hindu don Ganesh Gaitonde (Chala jaata hoon kisi ki dhun me, dhadakte dil ke tarane liye). And no wonder then, while strolling through the cramped lanes of Delhi’s Nizamuddin, when you decide to play a parlour game and suddenly ask him what five songs he’d like played at his funeral, he pauses and says: “One by Kishore Kumar, one by Mohd Rafi, and one by Mukesh,” adding that any song by each would do. Number four: “A hiphop artist in the States, the1shanti, he’s Indian… he actually read Love and Longing in Bombay (Vikram’s collection of short stories) and did a song of the same title on his album Indian Bambaataa.” And last? “It’s not really a song, but Harivanshrai Bachchan’s poem, Madhushala.”...

by: Dahlia Sen

Tue, 29 Aug 2006 14:03:31 +0100

In this recent interview with the Hindustan Times, I was very intrigued to read that Chandra listens to music while writing. He has extremely good taste in music....

Going for the kill Aditya Sinha New Delhi, August 27, 2006 Vikram Chandra listens to Hindi film music while he writes. And considering it took him over seven years to write his latest novel, Sacred Games, a 900-page thriller that has propelled him to the pantheon of Indian writing, he must have heard a lot of songs. No wonder, then, the main characters in Sacred Games are often singing or humming a tune, whether it is Inspector Sartaj Singh (Main zindagi ka saath nibhaata chala gaya) or the Hindu don Ganesh Gaitonde (Chala jaata hoon kisi ki dhun me, dhadakte dil ke tarane liye). And no wonder then, while strolling through the cramped lanes of Delhi’s Nizamuddin, when you decide to play a parlour game and suddenly ask him what five songs he’d like played at his funeral, he pauses and says: “One by Kishore Kumar, one by Mohd Rafi, and one by Mukesh,” adding that any song by each would do. Number four: “A hiphop artist in the States, the1shanti, he’s Indian… he actually read Love and Longing in Bombay (Vikram’s collection of short stories) and did a song of the same title on his album Indian Bambaataa.” And last? “It’s not really a song, but Harivanshrai Bachchan’s poem, Madhushala.”...