nilanjana s roy

Month: April 2010

  • DSC Prize: deadline extended to 5th May

    For publishers: got this from the DSC Prize for South Asian Literature team: “We are extending the deadline for entries for the DSC prize for SouthAsian Literature to 5th May, 2010. This is due to several requests comingfrom many publishing houses, mostly overseas, whose entries are delayeddue to the grounding of flights after the volcano […]

  • Book review: Quarantine, by Rahul Mehta

    (Published in the Business Standard, April 28, 2010) Quarantine Rahul Mehta Random House Rs 399, 252 pages “The week I start making notes for this essay is the same week my mother is reading for the first time the manuscript for my short story collection, Quarantine…,” Rahul Mehta writes in an essay, Coming Out, just […]

  • The BS column: Guerrillas in the Mist

    (Published in the Business Standard, April 27, 2010) At the height of the first Naxal movement, reflections of the revolution could be seen in the works of writers from Kerala, Bengal, Andhra and other “affected” states. Some romanced the gun, some romanced the revolutionaries; some were fiercely anguished works that are still read, if only […]

  • The BS column: The missing Indian canon

    (Published in the Business Standard, April 19, 2010) In the library sales from the crumbling houses of Calcutta, or Delhi, or the hillstation homes, the keen-eyed book buyer would often come across sets of bound classics. These were usually in the printer’s binding—vellum, blue leather and gold—or occasionally bound in red with the owner’s initials […]

  • Speaking Volumes: The Empire’s orphan children

    (Published in the Business Standard, April 2010)As a touchingly emotional Rana Dasgupta rose to receive the Commonwealth Award for Best Book on Monday evening, he joined a long list of distinguished winners, from Mordecai Richler and Rohinton Mistry to Peter Carey, Vikram Seth and Andrea Levy. Dasgupta’s Solo, his second book and first novel, is […]

  • Book review: Brothers at War (Empire of the Moghul, Book II)

    (Published in the Business Standard, March 2010. I met and liked Michael and Diana Preston, co-authors of the Empire of the Moghul series, but as is apparent, I wasn’t sold on the second volume. The Prestons have been travelling to India for over 30 years, and know their Mughals–but Humayun didn’t come to life for […]

  • Speaking Volumes: The desi roman-a-clef

    (Published in the Business Standard, April 5, 2010. Any great Indian roman-a-clefs in languages other than Bengali or English?“I read Glenarvon too, by Caro Lamb…/ Goddamn!” In 1816, when the Lady Caroline Lamb published her infamous roman à clef, Glenarvon, Lord Byron’s response summed up his dismay at discovering the history of their tempestuous romance […]