Our cops seem to be eager to perfectly fit the mould that Bollywood/Indian cinema has set for them. The Hyderabad police have registered a case against controversial Bangladeshi writer Taslima Nasreen, who was recently attacked by workers of Majlis Ittehadul Muslimeen (MIM) in Hyderabad, for allegedly creating ill-feeling among communities. The writer has been booked [...]
Aavarana is a book Indian secular intellectuals love to hate but cannot ignore. The “average reader” (which increasingly means someone endowed with commonsense, a healthy sense of balance, and has not mortgaged brains at the ideological altar) chose to respond differently. In the miniscule market for Kannada fiction, Aavarna has seen nine reprints in just [...]
The folks at Pragathi have slogged it out last month to release a stellar new edition this month. A must-read. Grab your copy now.
This was waiting to happen. Prof U R Ananthamurthy has declared he will not take part in literary functions in future. The decision came in the wake of strong criticism for his reaction on S L Bhyrappa’s controversial novel Aavarana that appeared in a section of the media. Prof Ananthamurthy said he was “misquoted†and [...]
So Arun Shourie has published yet another new book. Arun Shourie’s books are really empirical appeals to sanity in a country choked by din. Ashok Malik’s wonderful review of the book in the Pioneer, reproduced here in full.
My literary tastes have turned more classical nowadays. That hasn’t however, dimmed my fascination for Byron. For some reason, he’s like a powerful spell not in the least because Don Juan was one of the poems that has influenced my growing-up years. Anyway, here’s a superb review of Byron’s biography. The biography be damned, I loved [...]
Banning Salman Rushdie’s book caused the crash of Rajiv Gandhi’s government. Well, it was one of the reasons. What is noteworthy is the massive furore it caused in the nation. The media yelled murder of free speech, etc. Two decades later, the media is mum when such state-sponsored atrocities occur (don’t know if the link [...]
To me, the chief value of reading the Upanishads is simply the amazing stories that I find buried beneath layers of terse philosophical expositions. This is one of the several reasons why I hold the self-affirmed conviction that the Upanishads has something for everyone. One such story is–for want of a better title–the story of [...]
I was pleasantly surprised to receive several comments on my Entebbe book review. Most commenters have asked me where (if) it is available in India. My unfortunate answer: I’m sorry, I can’t help you much as I would like to. Good places to look for the book are the run-down second hand bookshops or the [...]
This Danish party gets it mostly right. A political party called Stop Islamisation of Denmark has claimed that 67th and 69th verses of Quran are violating the Danish constitution and the mosques across the country should be closed according to the 78th article of the Danish constitution… Graves said: “Denmark is our country. Some verses [...]
