This is one of those days when truth is stranger than fiction, or is it? In 2013, the late Shovon Chowdhury published an extraordinary novel called The Competent Authority. It was his debut and in his inimitable style, tongue-in-cheek humour. A decade later, voila!, we have an official letter stating that “as desired by the Competent Authority”, Cow Hug Day has been withdrawn.
Happy Valentines Day!
14 Feb 2023
Lunch at Pomegrante Street: A collection of recipes to start, text and illustrations by Felicita Sala (Scribble Books, Scribe Publications).
A stunning picture book that will work for children and adults alike. It is about the house at Pomegrante Street, where the occupants are getting ready for lunch. It has an almost cinematic feel while reading the book. As you turn the pages, you sweep through every apartment and peek into the respective kitchens to see what is cooking. Depending on the culture that is represented, the family is making an easy-to-put-together dish. There are hors-d’oeuvres, savoury dishes, main course, side dishes and of course, plenty of desserts. These include Salmorejo, sesame soy broccoli, guacamole, black bean soup, sole meuniere, spaghetti Al pomodoro, coconut dahl, mini-quiches, meatballs (with turkey, zucchini and feta), oyako don ( chicken and egg rice), baba ganoush, green rice, peanut butter & choc chip cookies, banana & blueberry bread, and strawberry crumble. Once it is all ready, all the neighbours scuttle down the stairs to the back yard for a sit down pot luck. Their good cheer and bonhomie, cutting across cultural divides, is almost palpable through the pages of this beautiful book. Plus point is that the recipe for every single dish is given and illustrated brilliantly. The illustrations are made with watercolours and coloured pencils.
This has been translated from French but for some inexplicable reason, the name of the translator has not been given. Instead the copyright details resting with the publisher are explicitly mentioned. Odd. It is at variance with the spirit of collaboration and sharing across cultures that the story underlines.
Nevertheless, it is a stunning book to read, share and use.
Ottolenghi and Nigella Lawson have endorsed it too.
‘A stunningly illustrated recipe book for kids (or anyone, really). It tells the story of different residents of a house cooking foods from around the world. Simply sweet.’
— Yotam Ottolenghi
‘Beautifully depicting an apartment building with people cooking food from all over the world … Really uplifting and charming.’
— Nigella Lawson
11 Feb 2023
. “A New History of India: From its origins to the twenty-first century” by noted historians Rudrangshu Mukherjee, Shobhita Punj and Toby Sinclair, published by Aleph Book Company .
A single-volume history of India such as this is sorely required. It is also beautifully illustrated with photographs and maps. History books on the trade list sell exceedingly well. These books access different communities of readers. But “A New History of India” will work tremendously well for ordinary readers, supplementary reader in middle and senior schools, prescribed text for schools that are not using state published textbooks or are affiliated to the NCERT or SCERT school boards, job aspirants taking various competitive exams including the Holy Grail — to join the hallowed portals of Indian bureaucracy, and many more. As a hardback, proced at Rs 999, it is a tad too expensive for many of the aforementioned readers but if a low-priced paperback, albeit published on poorer quality paper, this edition will sell like hot cakes. It also needs to be available in Indian languages. It will have a much larger reach. It is critical that it is made available since more than 50% of the Indian population is below the age of 25 and more than 65% is below the age of 35. This time period coincides with an astonishing lack of history about India’s history. This is exactly the lack of ignorance of the youth that is being preyed upon by Machiavellian individuals for their immediate political gains. It is a very worrying trend. Hence, books like this that are easy to consult and provide clear snapshots of our magnificent history are very welcome.
12 Feb 2023
“The Penguin Book of Hollywood”, edited by Christopher Silvester. First edition, 1998.
I picked up this anthology at our church garden fete. It consists of reportage, book extracts (usually from memoirs), accounts of incidents/recordings/castings/pitching a story etc. It is about Hollywood in the twentieth century.
Some of the essays are:
“Eluding the Patent Agents” Fred J. Balshofer
“The growing stature of agents” Howard Dietz
“The producer and the produced” George Sanders, Letter to his father, 16 Oct 1937
“Stravinsky in Hollywood” Miklos Rozsa
“The Ethics of the Industry” Raymond Chandler, Letter to Alfred Knopf, 12 Jan 1946
“The rising cost of production” Darryl F. Zanuck, Memo to Producers, Directors, Executives, 13 June 1946
“Group Life” Jean Renoir to Albert Andre, the painter, 25 Oct 1946
“No, I don’t despise Holywood”, Raymond Chandler , Letter to Hamish Hamilton, 13 Oct 1950
“Pitching a story”, John Gregory Dunne, husband of Joan Didion
“The casting of Al Pacino [ in “The Godfather”]”, Robert Evans
“The stress of Jon Voight”, David Sherwin
“Moral rot” John Huston
And the list goes on.
A quick check on the Internet shows that this book is unavailable. Sad. It seems like a treasure that can easily be updated.
11 Feb 2023
Idra Novey’s forthcoming novel Take What You Need . It been named as the most anticipated book of 2023 by Oprah Daily, Vulture, Today.com, Elle, and Lit Hub. I read an ARC in Nov 2022 when Idra sent across a copy. There is something extremely powerful about the writing. Here is the book blurb. It says much and yet, not much.
****
Set in the Allegheny Mountains of Appalachia, Take What You Need traces the parallel lives of Jean and her beloved but estranged stepdaughter, Leah, who’s sought a clean break from her rural childhood. In Leah’s urban life with her young family, she’s revealed little about Jean, how much she misses her stepmother’s hard-won insights and joyful lack of inhibition. But with Jean’s death, Leah must return to sort through what’s been left behind.
What Leah discovers is staggering: Jean has filled her ramshackle house with giant sculptures she’s welded from scraps of the area’s industrial history. There’s also a young man now living in the house who played an unknown role in Jean’s last years and in her art.
With great verve and humor, Idra Novey zeros in on the joys and difficulty of family, the ease with which we let distance mute conflict, and the power we can draw from creative pursuits.
Take What You Need explores the continuing mystery of the people we love most with passionate and resonance, this novel illuminating can be built from what others have discarded—art, unexpected friendship, a new contentment of self. This is Idra Novey at her very best.
****
It has been a few months since I read Take What You Need . Unfortunately, I read a digital copy so I was unable to mark it, dog ear the edition or even scribble in the margins as is my habit while reading. As a result, I cannot write out passages that appealed to me but I do know that it left me with an astonishing feeling of the power that exists deep within ourselves to find hope, to be creative, to find multiple ways of healing. The artist Jane lives alone. She lives in a home that is in an impoverished neighbourhood. Squatters are a common sight. It is a drifting population whose antecdents are unclear and they can be prone to violence as well — survival of the fittest. Yet, Jean with quiet determination, single-mindedly works upon her art. She rummages through scrap heaps for various sizes of metals and welds them in her home to create sculptures. After her death, her massively intricate installations are donated to a museum. It is a complicated procedure that involves removing the roof of her house and using cranes to lift the artwork and place it on a removal truck. Along the way, Jean has befriended Elliott, a neighbour’s son, a young man, a drifter, a loner, a rough-at-the-edges soul, who for some inexplicable reason takes a shine to Jean and assists her.
At one level, Take What You Need is a story about the many lonely individuals, whether in the USA or elsewhere, who come together to create their own social systems. They take what they need from these relationships and move on. It is about the odd couple Jean and Elliott, it is about the xenophobic youngsters gathered like a pack in the jungles, slowly being indoctrinated by the vile rants of politicians, little realising that they are mere pawns in the larger game of politics. The politicians take what they want from these impressionable young men — their votes, their allegiance, leaving them with nothing, no future. Unlike Jean. Who in the face of adversity, mourning the loss of a father who did not allow her to assist him in his car repair work, but slowly learned to take what she needed from her fate — her diginity, valued her time, created something out of nothingness, created a valuable commodity out of scrap that after her lifetime was hailed as a masterpiece. Jean represents the ability of humanity to bounce back against all odds. The individual takes what they need from life. The community takes what they need. Ultimately, it is an expression of one’s free will. It is a choice. And it is precisely these tiny decisions made on a daily basis that have a deeper consequence on the individual’s life.
I read all the time. Some books I remember, some I do not. But months later, the quiet, “simple” writing style of Idra Novey continues to deeply affect me. It empowers the reader to believe in themselves to bring the desired change in their life.
Read Take What You Want and you must take what you want from it too!
10 Feb 2023
@readingkafka on Twitter is a fascinating account on the state of libraries in India. Uma Mahadevan-Dasgupta is almost evangelical in her desire to disseminate information about libraries and their positive impact upon local communities. This is a particularly interesting thread that I captured via screenshots.
9 Feb 2023
This is utterly fascinating. Without letting on about the story, the fact that the list of acknowledgments is actually a bibliography in Salman Rushdie’s Victory City, is just so perfect. Literally, for an eminent author like him, and within the immediate literary context of the novel.
Hopefully, the wonderful historian-cum-storyteller Subhadra Sen Gupta is seeing the due acknowledgements to her from wherever she is now.
Here is the link to David Remnick’s profile of Salman Rushdie, “The Defiance of Salman Rushdie”, published in the New Yorker, Feb 2023.
9 Feb 2022
In the middle of December 2022, TOI Bookmark, weekly podcasts on books and literature was launched by The Times of India (TOI) . TOI has a new vertical dedicated to podcasts called Times Specials / ( @TimesSpecialTOI). It is specially curated premium content from across the Times Group, for digital audiences. I record every week with incredible writers and publishers, based around the world. The Times of India, of course, is the world’s largest newspaper and India’s No. 1 digital news platform with over 3 billion page views per month. Times Specials podcasts will be promoted across all TOI platforms, including print.
Some of those featured so far are International Booker Prize 2022 winner Geetanjali Shree, translator Daisy Rockwell, popular writers Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni, Ashwin Sanghi, Amish Tripathi, political scientist and academic Nalin Mehta, oral historian and chronicler Aanchal Malhotra, publisher ( Seagull Books) and poet Naveen Kishore, and many more.
And then on 5 Feb 2023, I got tagged in these incredibly generous tweets by Ipshita Mitra. Thank you for listening, Ipshita!
9 Feb 2023
During the Covid-19 pandemic lockdown, Scholastic Writers Academy was launched. I conceptualised the programme for Scholastic India. These are online workshops of 20 hours, 10 days x 2 hours every day, except for the weekends and national holidays. Two hours of a mix of lectures, presentations, interactive sessions, writing on camera, one-to-one mentoring in breakout rooms and peer review. Every participant is expected to write a short story. Every workshop culminates in a published anthology of the short stories. It includes the mentor’s note.
The faculty of Scholastic Writers Academy are handpicked. They are inevitably folks who have a deep interest in literature and understand its nuances. Also, they are extremely kind, gentle, firm and have excellent mentoring skills when interacting with the school students. Our fabulous mentors include or have included in the past, Rahul Saini, Sucharita Dutta-Asane, Neil D’Silva, Harini Srinivasan, Priya Ranganathan, Ujwala Samarth, Madhumita Gupta, Sushmitha Talisetti, Saachi Gupta, Kanchana Banerjee etc.
In the short span since the workshops began ( June 2021) till date, we have mentored more than 1200 students and had more than 55 editions of the workshops. Scholastic India has been incredibly innovative and determined with its outreach efforts with schools. Also, using the social media platforms to promote this programme. As a result, we have had registerations from across India and even abroad — the USA, Middle East, and Singapore.
Most often the workshops are general and we encourage students to come up with their own story pegs and see it through. But we have also had thematic workshops on science fiction, horror, Nature, animals etc. The students are in the age range of 9 to 17+. We make batches of junior and senior.
The success of these workshops is incredible. And I am not saying it because I am part of the core team that works on it. It is the word-of-mouth success too. Students have registered for it not once but multiple times! They join the workshop with trepidation and nervousness. Some join because they have been encouraged to do so by their parents and schools. But within two days, the kids are yapping away happily to their mentor and with each other. Remember that these groups meet ONLY online. They do not know who will be in their batch from beforehand. They are complete strangers to each other. By the time the workshop is over, two weeks later, the children are a raucous bunch and share a special bonhomie. They do not want the classes to end. They leave on a high note. At the concluding session, parents tell us over and over again, how their children look forward to these sessions. They grin and are cheerful. They do not want to be disturbed. Even kids who are normally restless are at peace and disciplined about writing daily. They look forward to these interactions.
Later, they regroup for the official book launch. These are also held online on Scholastic India’s Facebook page. All the recordings of the past book launches exist on the page. There is a fixed format with Mr Neeraj Jain, Scholastic India, MD, the mentor, and a chief guest — inevitably this person is an educationist. It is such a thrill watching these virtual book launches. The children are animatedly chittering at meeting each other once more. Their eyes shine with delight at being able to hold their physical books aloft.
At the book launches, the children share the impact that these workshops have had upon them. It is not only that their writing skills have improved ( SWA does not teach grammar!). But it is the sudden realisation that with a bit of focus, discipline and determination they can create and be productive. They have learned to improve their social skills as they are forced to engage with the other participants. They have improved their vocabulary as they are encouraged to offer peer review in class. They realise that writing a short story is not as easy as it seems and they need ideas and vision. There are many other aspects that they touch upon but it is the massive confidence boosting measure that really astounds them. They discover aspects of themselves that they did not realise they had within them.
Registerations are open throughout the year. To register, please click here.
Every book that is published by Scholastic India as part of the Scholastic Writers Academy is available on Amazon India. In fact, schools buy entire sets of these books. And/or they prescribe individual copies as supplementary readers in their institutions. Libraries order multiple sets as everyone is very proud to see school children write imaginatively and spin stories and ultimately be published by a 102-year-old brand like Scholastic. The same publishing house that published Stephen King, Joyce Carol Oates, Andy Warhol, Sylvia Plath, John Lithgow, Robert Redford, and Truman Capote. It is also the publisher of Dav Pilkey, Liz Pinchon, and J.K.Rowling ( in the USA).
We have even launched an edition for adults — 18 and above. The inaugural workshop was very exciting and energetic.
Register and be published by Scholastic India!
7 Feb 2023
…all of a sudden, in this unfamiliar room, something descends upon her. It has the quality of a vision but it is frailer than that, and brighter in its urgency, arriving unbidden in her head.
What has come to her is a painting, entire and robust in its untested perfection. A painting on an elongated rectangle of tavola — she will cut herself the exact size she neesd, at the precise angle she favours — at the centre of which will be a castle. No, a white mule. No, a stone marten, with streaks on its face. Or a centaur? Or all of them. Not one painting, then, but a series, all miniature, all ornate, the confines of the wooden boards filled with details and clues and decorations. She will cut the board now — no, it will have to be tomorrow, for she shouldn’t wake Alfonos with the sawing. But did she pack the right tools? The small handsaw, the planning knife? She thinks she did not.
The disappointment is keen. It leaves sharp icicles in her chest. To have this idea but no means to act upon it: the thwarted frustration of it. No matter. She will sketch the ideas tomorrow. Or perhaps now, this minute. She will ease herself from the bed and strike the tinder, relight the candle and take up the roll of vellum she knows is in the travelling box.
…
She will spend the days with him, so that he feels attended to, taken notice of, but she will work at night. All, she thinks, as the candle catches at first try, will be well, and she sits, placing her hands, palm down, on the surface of her desk, and she smiles.
p.94-95
The Marriage Portrait by Maggie O’Farrell (Hachette India) is about the marriage of Lucrezia, Duchess of Ferrara and her husband, Alfonso. She is sixteen years old and is isolated by Alfonso in his childhood home. A contrast to her upbringing in Florence, where her parents had the grandest palazzo, unusual animals in their menagerie, plenty of laughter and good cheer, many soldiers to guard their quarters and many ladies-in-waiting, readily available to provide companionship and assistance. But in Ferrara, Lucrezia has a very lonely life, albeit she is showered with jewels and expensive dresses. Her supposedly besotted husband commissions a marriage portrait of hers but is as per his specifications. He dictates terms to the artist and his assistants and expects his wife to dress in a manner that befits her status as a duchess, not caring if it was comfortable for Lucrezia or not. Whereas she, an excellent miniature artist herself, tries to find peace and contentment in her new circumstances by focussing on her painting.
It is another powerfully written story by Maggie O’Farrell for whom different historical settings seem to be merely an excuse to understand women’s circumstances in different periods. Ultimately, she focusses upon the main protagonist and in a very Henry Jamesian and Robert Browning style, she plays with the interior monologue technique. It works brilliantly in the case of her women characters as O’Farrell is able to take these deep dives into their minds and make visible the riotous cacophany that zips through a woman’s mind, belying her placcid exterior. The running commentary that women have in their heads while being expected to perform as per someone else’s, usually their husband or father’s expectations. In The Marriage Portrait, the Renaissance becomes the ideal backdrop for Lucrezia’s experiments in painting. The minute detail with which she painted, inevitably fairly realistic renditions, are representative of the age Lucrezia lived in. But it serves another very critical function of showcasing the light, the profusion of colour, happiness and joy that radiates from within Lucrezia and translates itself into her paintings. It is in direct contrast to her irascible husband, who can flare up at the drop of a hat. It is disconcerting… and sadly, the irrational and inexplicable outbursts will be familiar to many a female reader. And herein lies the beauty of Maggie O’Farrell’s storytelling. It is not always the smart pace or etching of characters, but it is her ability to send a sharp pain of recognition through the reader while portraying a woman in a domestic milieu. The fact that little seems to have changed over the years and centuries. It is sad.
The Marriage Portrait is a far second to the previous novel and Womens Prize winner Hamnet. It lacks the sharpness of Hamnet but The Marriage Portrait manages to take a deeper dive into the inner psyche of the protagonist, Lucrezia and with her, some of the minor characters like her mother, her maid and Alfonso’s sisters. There are dialogues and action off stage that are chilling and ring very true. The casual violence directed at the women is unpleasant and sadly, continues to be perpetuated. At times this is not an easy book to read but it explains why it has been garnering a fair amount of buzz on social media. It makes sense.
Read it.
31 Jan 2023
