The Maanga

In the light of recent discussions, It is clear how Nilu should have reacted in the case of this death.  

He should have waited a year and written a novel alleging an inappropriate relationship between Manjunath and the Petrol Bunk owner. The dipstick that Manjunath used to measure petrol adulteration could have acquired an entirely new meaning. Chandrahas would have written a  glowing review of it, Amardeep Singh of Sepia Mutiny would have called the novel very rewarding and Gaurav Sabnis would have defended it stoutly, saying it is an autonomous creation, which should be considered independently of the author´s vices.  

When you want to make heroes out of your own dead, even after they havent done anything significant in life, it might help remembering not to defecate on the graves of other heroes.  

lazygeek.net and kirukkal.com will remain closed for the next week in remembrance of writer sujatha.

Two questions,

1. Why the fuck would you call someone ‘writer sujatha’?
2. Given that you are this fucked up, has that wife produced the babies?

Gasquet finds his mojo .

The next three Grand Slams are Gasquet’s to lose now.

In the 1930s in England, there were a bunch of authors, who wrote rather well. WH Auden, Christopher Isherwood and Stephen Spender. I can vouch for Auden, but I havent read more than one work by Isherwood or Spender. In 1951, Stephen Spender wrote his autobiography, “World within World”. In 1993, David Leavitt, a young American author, wrote a book called “While England Sleeps” which Spender claimed, closely derives in “Plot” from his autobiography. He filed a plagiarism suit on Leavitt, forcing him to change parts of his book (The plot itself?).  

Leavitt argued in a piece called “Did I plagiarize his life” that plagiarism of a life is not an issue at all. Spender laughed at this idea in a subsequent piece, “My life is mine: It is not David Leavitt´s”  

Now this same David Leavitt has gone and written a book on Srinivasa Ramanujan and Hardy in a book called The Indian Clerk. This time, before using Ramanujan´s life for his novel, he must have checked that neither Hardy nor Ramanujan were alive, nor had any living descendants.  

I wonder if we scream at plagiarism only if it is committed by young Harvard undergraduates of Indian origin. Maybe we are so grateful to an American author for choosing an Indian topic, that we automatically bless him with glowing reviews, without digging a little deep into his history. Maybe Kaavya can write something fifteen years later and expect glowing reviews as well in America?

As I grow older, I find myself unable to read. Even a few years ago, a book a week, 52 books a year seemed within reach, and a library of a thousand books seemed to be a fine lifetime of reading. No longer. Two months have gone by in 08, and I havent read a thing. So, it is with some envy that I read about someone like Jacques Barzun, who has just turned 100, and appears to have read everything.  

But is there anyone who writes consistently well anymore? Jonathan Franzen does, as does Jonathan Lethem, so I am stuck waiting for one of the Jonathans to write something. Meanwhile, I am stuck to re-reading Lethem´s piece on his personal influences. 

Talking of writing, what is with all these new book deals in India? Only Amitav Ghosh  might pull himself over the poverty line with that advance. Shadow lines is the last good book he wrote, and that was 20 years ago. Pay peanuts, get monkeys etc.

“The Americans always claim they won the war,” she said. “That’s rubbish. We won the war. They only joined in when it was already clear the Germans were going to lose.”

Now, I want to visit Russia more than ever. Please contribute generously to my holiday fund.

A blogger comes with a shelf life. And, when the said blogger’s chosen topic is either humor or shock, that shelf life only becomes shorter. With more serious consequences beyond.

In other words, stop reading.

Long ago, I remember that to extract Rs 10,000 of your own salary free of tax from the Indian government, you had to give various excuses, like sisters marriage, grandfather´s funeral, or a mundan ceremony. I cottoned on to the fact mundan ceremony was the best, because it was the smallest lie and also because you could repeat it year after year.  Different kids, hair grows back etc.

I wonder if this is still around in Indian tax laws. I guess NSC, NSS, PPF etc might still be around, but what about this old favourite?

Who coined the phrase (or used it first with respect to India) ‘demographic dividend’?

In two years’ time, when we are fighting for half a meal, we should know whom to blame.

Mooshraff: The end of a journey that began in Pondicherry.