In which I recklessly predict winners

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I am not on any of the juries of the Vodafone Crossword Book Award 2010. Thank goodness. The Fiction and Non-fiction juries have to choose their shortlists from over 100 books each before arriving at one or more winners. Even the Children's jury have to consider some fifty-and-odd books. The Translation jury has the easiest job of them all - with less than thirty eligible books to read, they might even try reading all of them before announcing the shortlist. While many of the titles themselves may provide comic relief, the judges may well wonder over the merits of putting every published book - so long as the author is eligible for the prize - in the longlist. Sure, it speaks well for the volume of output from Indian publishers, but is it possible to be fair in such a scenario? Even if each of the three-member juries....

In Which An E-reader Is Reviewed

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I have to confess - or boast, depending on your point of view - that I am reading all non-Indian fiction on the iPad these days, using the Kindle App to buy and download everything from Jonathan Franzen (Freedom, a novel) to Emma Donaghue (Room, a novel). So, when the Infibeam Pi - a homegrown e-reader - turned up, I wanted to give it a test-drive. Except that my eight-year-old son Srijon, who's also migrating his reading from paper to screen (we share the iPad as a reading device), bagged it first. Here, then, is his perception of the product. After my dad got this device to write a review on it, reading my friend's old journal or looking at my remakes of Calvin and Hobbes or reading Samit Basu's "Bani Chatterjee and the Burden of Expectation" has become much easier. But the picture quality is not....

In which Anuja Chauhan does an encore

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I've just finished Battle for Bittora, Anuja (The Zoya Factor) Chauhan's second novel, which adds young love to that other Great Indian Sport, Parliamentary Elections, to create what is undoubtedly the first time kisses and... er... much more have figured so prominently in fiction featuring real, gritty politics and politicians. And I'm not really embarrassed to admit that while many Great Works of Indian Writing in English sometimes leave me looking for excuses to postpone my reading, I filched every minute I could from daily life to finish it. Why is a story about a battle for the Bittora constituency between two childhood friends who had a thing when they were 16 and are now frenemies (sure, roll your eyes) so wonderful to read? Personally, it's Chauhan's wicked ear for dialogue that kept me going breathlessly, waiting for the next gem. Her characters are deliciously middle-India -....

In which I'm envious of a publisher

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In the business of books, it's where the conversation goes after a few drinks. 'I just want to start my own publishing company, you know. Not too big, but just do the kind of books I really want to do.' Next morning, it's usually business as usual, as the cold reality of mortgages and petrol bills kicks in once more. Not, fortunately, for every one. Last year, Divya Dubey - if you can't wait to find out who she is, scroll down to the bottom immediately - did what very few people have been able to do: set up her own publishing imprint and firm. Three books to the good, she's forging ahead to do more. Last week, she responded to my (frankly envious) questions on email: Q: How long did it take from the time you set up your company to publishing your first titles? What were....

Wednesday, June 02, 2010

In which I convert to the e-reader

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I grew up on books printed on paper with ink, arrayed on bookshelves, pleasing in their heft, palpably solid. Hell, I've grown old on them too. And still I'm ready to convert to the e-reader - somebody buy me one, or, preferably three: the iPad, the Kindle and the Sony. Until they do, I've been experimenting with my iPhone (first generation, no need to eat your hearts out) as an e-reader, and there are many reasons it's working for me. Here are the top 10: 10. I read in bed at night, with the lights turned out. The screen provides its own illumination. 9. There's a huge tactile pleasure in 'turning over' a page with just a movement of the finger, without worrying about separating the pages from one another or damaging the paper. 8. I can play with the size of the letters, making them larger or smaller just....

Wednesday, May 26, 2010

In which I am afraid

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"These are difficult days. I am busy all the time. My children complain that I no longer have time to cook for them. That their mother ignores the living for the dead. What can I do? Respect must be given to the dead. So few know how to prepare them correctly. In these times when death lies heavy in every house it is strange that such an art should be lost. My mother taught me and I in my time will teach my daughter. She fights with me, saying she will never do a job like mine. That it is dirty and ugly and scares her." - from The Washer of The Dead, by Venita Coelho, Zubaan Books/Penguin Books Venita Coelho's is a familiar name. I had heard of her as writer for television, as someone who chucked up the Bombay life to move to Goa (I....