Tellin' Everybody...

8

I just met two sets of adoptive parents for a lifestyle story on adoption - and of course while you're busy looking at things in terms of "case studies", you tend to miss the human angle, what makes it all worthwhile. One family opened their home to us and also thrashed their way out of a moral dilemma - on whether to let their adopted daughter speak to us on the subject or no ... And to their credit they took her more seriously than the glitz of a couple of seconds of fame. They chose not to talk her into giving us a couple of bytes, saying that they didn't want her to grow to the much pricklier age of 15 and regret whatever she'd said. Good point, because who would she blame? Her parents, naturellement!! And of course the extra attention almost never helps when you're 11....

Sacred Games...Up Close and Personal

2

It took Vikram Chandra some seven years to write Sacred Games, currently being touted as the big Indian release of the year. And they're not kidding about the "big" - it's 900 pages, so yes, just what you'd want to pop into your overnight bag if you're taking a weekend trip! What does it take to put out a 900 page book - well obviously, you've got to believe in what you're saying. So instead of me fixating on the somewhat daunting length (and believe me, I quite like the challenge a long book presents, unlike the more fickle demands made on your attention span by, say a short story) here's a look at what the book's about. (To deal with all the gasp! You actually read it? Wonder of wonders looks I've been getting - that and the unsaid, "Wow, you really must not have much work....

Review: Shooting Water

1

Shooting Water Author: Devyani Saltzman Publisher: Penguin India Price: Rs 295/- Shooting Water is an emotional, even turbulent ride. Sure, you'll probably start it with some amount of scepticism. I know I did - this is after all, a book written by the daughter of a huge director, Deepa Mehta. How could it not be overshadowed by the famous mother? But it's not Deepa Mehta's book, it's Devyani Saltzman's. And she's so unbelievably open about her feelings and her vulnerabilities, not to mention the journey she embarked upon with her mother, after agreeing to work with her on a film, that it's hard not to be impressed. Saltzman talks of all kinds of things. Like being asked to choose who to live with when her parents split up when she was 11, and how that choice essentially cast a shadow on the whole family. She chose to....