http://indianwriting.blogsome.com "That was the beginning of the century; this is its end. I have been thinking not only of the people who lived there once, but also of the generations of dogs accompanying them in their everyday bustle, and one night— I don't know where it came from— in a predawn sleep, that funny and tender phrase composed itself: a road-side dog." - Czeslaw Milosz, Borderlines. Fri, 24 Jul 2009 12:08:09 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en Email invitation from the PEN All-India Centre: A reading from his novel, A Blind Man’s Map of Mumbai, by VIVEK TANDON Date: 30 July 2009 (Thursday) Time: 6.15 pm Place: Theosophy Hall (3rd floor), 40 New Marine Lines Churchgate, Mumbai 400 020 Vivek Tandon is a writer who has worked in several genres. He is the author ... http://indianwriting.blogsome.com/2009/07/24/a-blind-mans-map-of-mumbai/ The winners of the Crossword Vodafone Book Awards 2008 have been announced. This was the shortlist. **** The 2009 Shakti Bhatt First Book Prize has issued a call for nominations. Last year’s winner was Mohammed Hanif’s A Case of Exploding Mangoes. • Entries may be in any genre: poetry, fiction, creative ... http://indianwriting.blogsome.com/2009/07/24/672/ Woke up in the morning to her voice. “Unniye, don’t go on sleeping covered up like that. It’s Monday.” She was calling the eldest son. She then moved to the kitchen, her white sari crumpled. Brought me a big glass of coffee. Then? What happened then? Did she say anything ... http://indianwriting.blogsome.com/2009/06/01/kamala-das-suraiyya/ Bedtimes are later these days, with the boys picking out different books every night - though it’s D who chooses, and M kind of gurgles along happily. Goodnight Moon is one of the favourites. Then there’s Tiger on a Tree; one of the Clifford books about the dogs making leaf ... http://indianwriting.blogsome.com/2009/04/01/bedtime-reading/ My grand-uncle T.S.Satyan’s photographs are on display at the Institute for Contemporary Art, Rampart Row, Kala Ghoda. The exhibition came to Mumbai from Tasveer. Satyan is now 86. He is based in Mysore, but was here for two days for the show opening. Read this 2002 article by Theodore ... http://indianwriting.blogsome.com/2009/03/30/photograph-exhibition/ T.N.Shanbhag, who passed away on February 27 this year, aged 85, was one of India’s great bookmen. He had a simple but clear understanding of the business of books: that there would always be people who wanted to buy them, and that they would buy them as long as they ... http://indianwriting.blogsome.com/2009/03/30/tnshanbhag-and-the-strand-tradition/ At the launch of the Nano, “a voice-over comparing the car’s introduction to the scaling of Mount Everest, the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989 and Thomas Edison’s invention of the light bulb.” Er, the Tiananmen square protests? http://indianwriting.blogsome.com/2009/03/29/665/ …”An Atlas of Impossible Longing” by Anuradha Roy. It’s the story of three generations of a Bengali family in the first half of the twentieth century. There are some lovely things in the book, such as this excerpt. http://indianwriting.blogsome.com/2009/03/26/just-finished-reading/ I admired many things about the film, including the fact that it was made at all. It was uncompromising in what it set out to do. One of the saddest moments: an elderly musician, Khan Saheb (Naseeruddin Shah) recollects the first time he saw the tomb of Wali Gujarati, and ... http://indianwriting.blogsome.com/2009/03/21/firaaq/ Oh, this little film is such a delight. Directed by scriptwriter extraordinaire Sooni Taraporevala, with her two lovely kids playing two of the main roles in the film along with Sohrab Ardeshir, Boman Irani, Imaad Shah, and all sorts of dear Bombay faces including Mahabanoo Mody-Kotwal, Cyrus Broacha, and Kunal ... http://indianwriting.blogsome.com/2009/03/14/little-zizou/ I read this P.D.James novel for a book club meeting this month. Pity that I ended up not being able to attend the meeting (which was to happen at the newly redone Tea Centre) because I was stuck near the airport, in traffic, after seeing off my father and brother. ... http://indianwriting.blogsome.com/2009/03/14/the-private-patient/ Though our short break in Kodaikanal was anything but quiet, with the two boys making a racket through most of the day and well into the night. Highlights of the trip: - the children’s delight at seeing the mountains for the first time. D, on seeing a pine tree in the ... http://indianwriting.blogsome.com/2009/03/14/a-nice-quiet-holiday/ Everyone should see this film. http://indianwriting.blogsome.com/2009/03/04/turtles-can-fly/ Went to the Strand Book Stall this evening, partly just to make sure it was still there. Silly, I know, and I hadn’t seen the Shanbhags at the shop for months now - but still. I picked up a copy of Roberto Bolano’s 2666, which The Complete Review calls “nearly ... http://indianwriting.blogsome.com/2009/03/02/still-there/ Orhan Pamuk will make an appearance in Mumbai this week, reading from his work. Here is the opening of Snow: The silence of snow, thought the man sitting just behind the bus driver. If this were the beginning of a poem, he would have called the thing he felt inside him ... http://indianwriting.blogsome.com/2009/03/02/pamuk/ Our movie-going has become more regular. The first film we saw at the new PVR Phoenix was Margazhi Raagam, which had Bombay Jayashri and T.N.Krishna in concert. Pity there was just one other person in the hall. We also saw Milk, Sean Penn’s best performance. And The Changeling, quite a disappointment. And Slumdog ... http://indianwriting.blogsome.com/2009/02/28/at-the-movies-2/ Haruki Murakami’s Jerusalem Prize acceptance speech. Please do allow me to deliver one very personal message. It is something that I always keep in mind while I am writing fiction. I have never gone so far as to write it on a piece of paper and paste it to the wall: ... http://indianwriting.blogsome.com/2009/02/28/the-novelist-in-wartime/ … Laura Miller on Elaine Showalter’s new book, “A Jury of Her Peers: American Women Writers from Anne Bradstreet to Annie Proulx”. …Showalter offers more grist for the mill than a hundred volumes of theory. Why, for example, did Britain produce several women novelists of genius during the 19th century ... http://indianwriting.blogsome.com/2009/02/28/why-cant-a-woman/ Sad news. Mr T.N. Shanbhag of Strand Book Stall (”Where the reader comes first”), the 60-year old 20% discount bookstore in town, passed away yesterday. I’m blogging from Khandala, so I’ll just provide two links: Abodh has a lovely tribute. Here is an article by Ranjit Hoskote in the ... http://indianwriting.blogsome.com/2009/02/28/rip-mr-shanbhag/ I have always admired the writing of Abraham Verghese. I had earlier linked to this article about helping to treat the Katrina refugees. He has published a new novel, Cutting for Stone. Here is Verghese in conversation with Dr Pauline Chen in the NYT: “The importance of the ritual ... http://indianwriting.blogsome.com/2009/02/27/i-am-your-doctor/ Christopher Hitchens is impressed with Rushdie’s English: At a dinner party that will forever be green in the memory of those who attended it, somebody was complaining not just about the epic badness of the novels of Robert Ludlum but also about the badness of their titles. (You know the sort ... http://indianwriting.blogsome.com/2009/01/05/links-4/ Recently our son D acquired a new uncle - Oba Mama. This evening D, climbing on top of a wooden chest and trying to get onto the window above it, wails: “Can’t climb!” A and I look up from our books and chorus: “What did Oba Mama say?” “CAN!” says D promptly. He ... http://indianwriting.blogsome.com/2009/01/01/lesson/ A poem by Wislawa Szymborska A Few Words on the Soul We have a soul at times. No one’s got it non-stop, for keeps. Day after day, year after year may pass without it. Sometimes it will settle for awhile only in childhood’s fears and raptures. Sometimes only in astonishment that we are old. It rarely lends a hand in uphill tasks, like moving furniture, or ... http://indianwriting.blogsome.com/2009/01/01/for-the-new-year/ How can the impoverishment and suffering of Gaza’s children – more than 50 per cent of the population – benefit anyone? Sara Roy in the LRB. (via Amitava Kumar) http://indianwriting.blogsome.com/2009/01/01/how-indeed/ At the end of a ghastly year, what a special pleasure to see these talented actors together in this old favourite. We saw it at the Sophia Bhabha Hall. It’s a comforting play, with its sense of family, friendship and loyalty as it spans some 35 years of the nation’s ... http://indianwriting.blogsome.com/2008/12/30/tumhari-amrita/