Book launch - River of Smoke - part II

Penguin formally released copies of River of Smoke here today. Presiding over the function was Mr Gopal Krishna Gandhi, who is himself a writer and a formidable speaker. Mr Amitav Ghosh was there to answer questions on his book and sign copies for the audience who had gathered in enthusiastic numbers.

After a short introduction and without much ado Gandhi held aloft a copy of the book and then there was a short speech by Ghosh, most of which was about his admiration for Mr Gandhi who had changed the course of governance in West Bengal, where he has been governor in the past. He emphasized on this especially because Gandhi during his speech quipped at the totally dispensable role he would be playing as "releaser of the book". Now that is totally unwarranted because his excellence and calibre are really well known among book lovers who have seen him in action at several book launches.
Gandhi's reference to the "gatecrashing freesnackers" to whom his presence would be especially irritating was perhaps a bit too uncharitable for someone in his position. Still you can;t have a perfect evening always!

The questions posed to Ghosh were skilful and the author opened out to them with aplomb. When asked how much he enjoyed the fame and the taj coromandel book launches, he replied that it had not come easily and explained how he had remained in relative obscurity for years when he worked with Ravi Dayal a much smaller publisher and his books were read by a few intellectuals only. He recalled with warmth his earlier publisher. A member of the audience asked him how he had worked with lascar pidgin, and whether there was a dictionary he had on this. He said that he had tried to learn sailing when embarking on this book and had realised that the ship hands would have been speakers of various languages, and so there should be a dictionary somewhere. Quite surprisingly, he had chanced upon one such dictionary in Harvard, not failing to add that the publisher had been a Bengali.
Mr Gandhi's perceptive question 'how did you differentiate between Parsi Gujarati and plain Gujarati?' was much appreciated by the author. He laughingly admitted there was too a dictionary of Parsi Gujarati available...

So leaving us all in an admiring trance, the evening surged forth, with a bunch of people wafting towards the author for signing their copies of the book, and some others on whom the edict 'gatecrashing free snackers' had bounced off lightly, went on their way to the bar.

Book launch - River of Smoke

Now I am a little more than halfway through the book. It will be such a thrill today to meet the author. Amitav Ghosh is here in Chennai and he will be launching this book at Taj Coromandel today.

I have a couple of questions to ask him about the book. I wonder if I'll have a chance to ask...

மொளகாப்பொடி - தூள் கிளப்பிய நாடகம்...

நேத்து பாமாவின் சிறுகதை மொளகாப்பொடி நாடகமாக்கத்தை (ஸ்ரீஜித் இயக்கத்தில்) பார்க்க போயிருந்தோம். நாடகத்திக்கின் துவக்கத்தில் ஜீவா ரகுனாத்தின் அறிமுகத்தில் தொடங்கி கடைசி வரி வரை ரசிக்கும்படியாக துளிக்கூட பார்வையாளர்கள் கவனம் குறையாத அளவிற்கு நாடகம் சுவாரசியமாயிருந்தது.
எல்லா நடிகர்களும் சிறப்பாக நடித்திருந்தார்கள் அதிலும் சில கதாபாத்திரங்கள் மனதை விட்டு அகலாத வகையில் இருந்தன. குறிப்பாக கங்கம்மா பச்சையம்மா இரண்டு பேரின் எதிர் எதிர் பாத்திரப்படைப்பு மிகவும் சிறப்பாயிருந்தது. பச்சையம்மாவாக நடித்த லிவிங்க் ஸ்மைல் வித்யா அந்த பாத்திரமாகவே மாறிவிட்டார் என்று தான் நிசமாகவே சொல்ல வேண்டும்.

கங்கம்மாவாக நடித்த ரம்யாவும் சிறப்பாக நடித்தார். நாடகத்தில் நடித்திருந்த பல நடிகர்கள் இதற்கு முன்னே மேடையேறியதில்லை என்று தெரிய வந்த போது ஆச்சரியமாயிருந்தது. அந்த அளவிற்கு எல்லாரும் ஒருங்கிணைந்து செயல்பட்டார்கள்.

நாடகத்திற்கு வந்திருந்த சில நண்பர்களுடன் பேச முடிந்தது, மற்ற சிலரை பார்க்கக்கூட முடியாத அளவுக்கு கூட்டம். அப்படி எல்லாரோடும் பேச கிடைத்திருந்தால் நேற்று மாலை இன்னும் கூட சிறப்பாயிருந்திருக்கும்...

The bashful book reviewer's dilemma

I have very mixed feelings when someone asks me about the work of reviewing books. The more I meditate on the experience the more they get mixed. On the one hand it is a great pleasure to read a new book and to comment on it. It is an invitation to be analytical and judge the book, you'll be thinking. And so it is, in principle!

In reality it is a work that has an aftermath. Just like any kind of original writing, if your review is anything but boringly bland and supportive of the writing You will make enemies. And how!
Now what would you do if the book you were given had typos all over the place? You cant very well go around declaring that the author has asserted an artistic license on can you?

And reviewers are very conscious that what they say will be read by the author and publisher's faculty but even if the whole world is up in arms you cannot gloss over it when there are logical blunders, errors in organizing the text and even in dates - mind you I am not referring to the disputed ones, just factual slip ups.

I have written many book reviews and it is a beastly task one has on one's hands. Sometimes the book reviews are not published - it is at the discretion of the editor. Even during my short stint as book reviewer, I have collected one story to narrate. Someone who was friends with me for a long time refused to speak with me for long and during one chance conversation when we met, the person says, ' but you give such good reviews for big publishers, it's only with the smaller ones that you take off.'

Does this person know of how many reviews I wrote were rejected? Sometimes those of books printed by big publishers got rejected too. Do you know what a pain it is to read a boring book diligently and to write a review and then to see it being rejected. No!

The book reviewer's job is many times unenviable and a thankless one and I would gladly relinquish it for some other more interesting position of writer. In fact I am definitely being given a rest with respect to book reviewing and though I try, I can't just say it was fun while it lasted.

Amitav Ghosh's River of Smoke

The second volume in Amitav ghosh's Ibis trilogy is here now. 560 pages of hardbound prose...

It promises to hold your interest through and through... watch this space for a review within the week...

Retro Round and Ring-a-ring...

No TV programme can emote like Star Vijay's Super Singer! This week they are on a "retro round" which means old jing bang tra la la songs from the seventies and eighties. We saw the judges, singers Shrinivas, Sujatha and Unni Krishnan in their nostalgic eighties costumes mimicking Kamal haasan and Rajnikanth. And all the participants in jazzy punk hairdo's and bell bottom styles a la elvis presley... heart warming to see them in the old favourites.
Then the inevitable Rajini songs came in for they were top of the pops in the eighties were they not... but as if to make up for their prior lapse when Singer Shrinivas went overboard with feeling for Rajini who is still sick and recuperating from his illness, was a little over the top... konjam over ma!

Journalist's murder - an act of brutality

Everyday you hear stories of murder and violence and they do affect you badly. The latest in this line, Journalist Dey's murder leaves one speechless.

Dey has become a hero but he is not alive to relish it. The number of such heroes who died on duty is on the increase. what a meaningless pursuit of democracy if all that happens to one is being shot at the end of it. Some of these deaths are explained away as arising from the needs of the deprived and hunted people. So why can't this be erased and why can't the deaths arising from the greed for money and power be done away with. Would life be any less interesting if power games in their present magnitude were done away with. And who is it interesting for anyway? The few billionaires-many-times over who indulge in it? Won't jobs be created through creative enterprise and common welfare practices like cultivating green patches or some such endeavour? Won't research thrive if it is on less esoteric subjects?

On every count a massive rethink is needed and at every level. Who is (or who are) the person(s) going to deliver this message when every group that has a voice is only demanding more power for their own needs?

Today as we were driving on Radhakrishnan road, just at the signal where the road touches the beach, the traffic lights flashed red and the vehicles ground to a halt. We suddenly heard a thud and turned around to see what was wrong. A bike following some distance behind did not have time to halt and butted into the car in front and toppled over. The poor man was hurt in the thigh and we got down, the crowds surrounded him and it seemed like he had no major injuries though he was obviously in discomfort.
The car driver was more upset that his car had been knocked against. A passing autorickshaw driver remarked, 'all four in the car are drunk!' Evidently the anger of the car driver was not so much because his car had been hit, rather because he wished to preempt the mobike driver , just in case of trouble. His buddies shushed him up and took him aside. The biker slowly hobbled away to a quiet spot to nurse his aches and pains and we made off, as the signal changed colour.

This is not an uncommon scene these days. I often have my heart in my throat when riding on a bike these days. People driving much above speed limits and bikers zigzaging past a static traffic are the very devil. Even if you avoid getting intimidated it seems like most of the time you survive on the trust you place in the other person's capacity to zig peacefully. Some good means of enforcing road manners must be evolved.

The crow sat and the palm fruit fell!

Do miracles happen in real life? If so a miracle is sorely called for to set right all the problems in this world. Sometimes miracles happen for no reason at all. Every step you take is a miracle.
You go out thinking that when you find time you have to call a friend and Lo the friend ends up calling you within the minute. Smiling you think now all you need is someone calling to give you a job and well! if not a job, someone does call you that day to give you some work to do which will carry you over that month. Then you step into the streets thinking that your two long calls have delayed yu and that you are going to land up in the nick of traffic and presto! just when you are in the middle of mount road, a chute opens up and you and your vehicle alone can go skimming past to touch base on time. The event you plan to attend is of course five minutes late - no people have not been waiting for you - it's the same old miraculous thingy in the air.
Your favourite people attend the event and you meet old friends you have been planning to call.
The list is endless. You can go on counting your miracles and they happen. So why then sometimes does the universe not respond however you cry and plead? If only I could answer this question here!

Writing about Birds

The rain and strong winds are throwing the traffic into tangles. I wait at home for people to return home. waiting is never easy, at least for me it isn't, I believe it is difficult for anyone... so I inevitably go and log on either to facebook or gmail or worst comes to worst to the counter to see whether anyone has visited my blog.

What is this strange urge to write and to want someone to come and read your writing and comment on and appreciate it? It would serve no great purpose nor is anyone under any illusion that a facebook status message or a blog article is going to change the world. To change the world was never on the agenda anyway.

We keep working and not always the way the world wants. But the closer we are to what the world requires the greater is the chance of success. For instance if you write about dogs or birds no one is gonna read your article except for some special friends who may happen to like whatever you write. But if you write about birds on environment day or about how science endangers birds lives, then you may get one or two listeners more. If you write about how some member of the royal family had a penchant for birdsong and hence kept a cageful of birds then there is the added glamour to the whole thing. Better still if you write about a clan of people who eat birds after a secret ritual you have the audience eating out of your hand.

Lecture on Wetlands in Chennai

Yesterday I attended a talk on the wetlands around chennai. It was an illuminating talk and I learnt about many places I did not know used to be major ecosystems in chennai - like the Padi Villivakkam lake, there is no lake there now apparently only a small ditch with plastic and rubbish being thrown in.

It was interesting to note that the way this landgrabbing usually takes place is by filling up the place with rubbish. Though it was surprising that the speaker was referring only to the small vendors who do this,or the narikuravas, whom he came down on quite too sharply -- was it that he did not want to be explicit?

It would be an ideal world if various people would sit around a table have a chaay and discuss which would be best for all concerned. Of course realtors and business folk should also agree to let go of this for the good of humanity at large! Sigh! How sweet a dream that is!!!

The speaker filled his talk with slides of various birds and beasts and insects that he had photographed out of his own love of the art and it made the slideshow very engaging and lively.

He was speaking in two languages and that made it a bit distracting, he could have only spoken in Tamil, but there may have been a good reason for using english that I do not know of...

Burnt fingers

It's not everyday you talk to a publisher and tell them there's a mistake in the book. No! and it's not often you do it in flair, the very first meeting you have with them, and also do them the favour of sending in a written review!!!

This is putting your foot in your mouth in style!! Well, that's what I did today! There's no pardon for me! Friends out there in the ether - reach out and let me know that I'm not half as bad as I feel!!!!

Small is beautiful

One is struck time and again about the pointlessness of doing things... for example laying a road or buying a car. Just take a look at the road outside your window. Do you see a pit in it? I am sure you will unless you live in a dingy room overlooking mount road or live on a tree on the highway.
Where did that pit come from, It was nothing but that noise last night - Boys digging it to plant a pole there for some game they wished to play, or someone who decided they wished to dig a pathway for the excess water in their house, or someone making a stealthy connection to the drainage pit, or the workers from the corporation or EB coming to check on your lines.
So when all these factors go to destroying your road, the point is why make a road at all in the first place.
So with the petrol prices going up - my question is why do you need to buy a car? At least if you must, stick to a small one that consumes less and lets you enjoy life more, and us too.