My piece in Tehelka on the controversy around the movie Sadda Haq and the ban on it by the Punjab government. Please read …
Archive for the ‘Other’ Category
My piece in Tehelka on the delay in justice for riot victims in India with special focus on the Sajjan Kumar acquittal in the Delhi riots 1984. Please read …
Two reviews of mine on Uday Prakash’s Walls of Delhi appeared in The Hindu, online and print editions.
Online: please read …
Print and Onine: please read …
1
Jul
Modern Urban Love
Review of a collection of short stories called Urban Shots. It is a series. I am glad some publishers are still publishing anthologies. Read here.
Ever since a child I have been fascinated by the lives of those who have followed the order of Guru Gobind Singh over the last 300+ years. A few weeks back I met some of them at Anandpur Sahib and realised that something important to them was at risk. Read here.
Edith and I have exchanged our writings for a number of years and I have loved the drafts of her novels. Her character sketches are evocative, she weaves the plot well, the stories are well paced and ultimately satisfying.
Wind Over Troubled Waters, available in print and as an e-book, is located at Corn World, Britland after a deluge. All that is left is Cerridwen’s dreams. From her dying mother she learns of the mural in Saint Eyes and sets out change Britland’s future. It is a dystopia story with an ending that uplifts the reader. It is structured like a Bildungsroman. The book even reads like a dream, both alluring and disturbing in parts. The drama is clear in the first chapter itself. The story moves on, sometimes at breathtaking pace.
It is a fascinating world the writers explore, shorn of knowledge and traditional security systems. Though the location of the story is scary, it is the text that holds up the reader’s confidence. The quality of the language is such that when tense moments come, the reader feels at sea but not adrift. This is where I feel it shows how the writers have assimilated the different registers of English by going to a deeper level – language as a sense of assurance. The language of WOTW takes the reader closer into the grip that the sure penned writers have on emotions and language.
I also liked it that though the story is set in a strange space, the drama is so human. WOTW is based on the kind of characters who shine through our classic texts. Its emotions play out in grand heroic ways. To me the quality of a good book, whether it be science fantasy or utopian/dystopian or even historical or literary fiction is that it is a big story, a universal story, a story in which the reader is awed by the happens and yet it appeals in an intimate manner.
Another aspect is how the writers explore what does it mean to be human. This is the ultimate quest of any art, to reflect us upon ourselves with the art being a medium of insight. Kudos! Edith and Francene, I am so glad you have reached the glorious heights of writing in your first joint venture fantasy novel.
For the book, click.
I have adored Ryszard Kapuscinski for years. Last summer I got a chance to visit Warsaw. I wanted to walk the streets Kapuscinski would have walked and sit in empty classrooms where he would have once taught. But surprise awaits the traveler. Lidia Puka helped me meet Mrs Alicja Kapuscinska and visit Kapuscinski’s study. Here is the interview. Read, enjoy!
22
Apr
On the death row
A few weeks back I found many of my Sikh friends abroad protesting against the would be hanging of Balwant Singh Rajoana. Then the media was full of news. His sentence was deferred and the media went silent on the issue. I traveled to Balwant Singh’s village to learn about the man. The article in two parts:
when I started reading Rhythms of Darkness by Anjana Basu it seemed it would follow the life of a politician who has come into power recently but it did not. However, it did more, showed me how Maoism thrives in the Realpolitik. See review here.
