Reading: random notes
A group of young men stood outside the gates of the Jaipur Literature festival for three days, handing out blue-and-gold, handbag-sized copies of the Quran. Several journalists noted their presence, […]
Monthly Archives: January 2012
The JLF columns: Unhearing the words
(Published in the Business Standard on January 23rd and 24th; both were written at the Jaipur Literature Festival. This is the first piece.)There were two Jaipur Literature Festivals this year. […]
Ten of the best: JLF sessions
The official recordings of the sessions by Amitava Kumar, Hari Kunzru, Jeet Thayil and Ruchir Joshi where the writers read out from the Satanic Verses as a gesture of protest […]
Speaking Volumes: Listening To Rushdie
(Published in the Business Standard, January 17, 2012) In all the claims made for Chetan Bhagat, tireless father of the Indian bestseller, this is one you will never hear: he […]
Speaking Volumes: Dickens and the Oriental Scene
(Carried in the Business Standard, 10 January 2012)At the Bhowanipore cemetery in Calcutta, visitors can walk down the neat rows of graves with their tidy crosses towards the civilian section, […]
Speaking Volumes: 2011 and 2012 in books
(Published in the Business Standard, January 2, 2012)South Asian fiction in 2011 was alive and thriving, despite premature reports of its demise. To be fair, Chetan Bhagat and the authors […]
Speaking Volumes: 2011′s best S Asian non-fiction
(Published in the Business Standard, December 27, 2011) From the biography of a killer disease to a tale of three lovers and one murder, the Opium Wars to the life […]
Speaking Volumes: 2011′s best S Asian non-fiction
(Published in the Business Standard, December 27, 2011)From the biography of a killer disease to a tale of three lovers and one murder, the Opium Wars to the life of […]
Speaking Volumes: So long, and thanks for all the fish
(Published in the Business Standard, December 20, 2011.)Except for the books, they had little in common. The writers and book lovers who died in 2011 spanned worlds of experience, from […]
Speaking Volumes: Bag of Bones
(Published in the Business Standard, December 13, 2011. This is a longer version of the column that was carried in print.) It was a measure of the relative innocence of […]
