Books on a Bucket List

 Not mine, but should be on others' lists, because I have read these books/authors already. That was a Googly.

Zorba the Greek

Maverick by Ricardo Semler

Bertrand Russell

J. Krishnamurty

Alice in Wonderland

Wodehouse- almost any book

Pu La Deshpande - if you read Marathi

Bill Bryson -his travelogues

Woody Allen- he writes well too

Comics- Asterix, Tintin, Mandrake, Phantom

Agatha Christie, Erle Stanley Gardner, Rex Stout and Arthur Conan Doyle among the stalwarts of whodunits

Benefits of Blogging

 You never know what it might lead to. Many years ago, I reviewed a book I had read, and also sent the link to the author, from her mail ID on the book cover. That led to a friendship with her and her husband, who also wrote a book on a different subject. I met them a couple of times, and she guest lectured at IMT Nagpur and Ghaziabad where I was. That was Devapriya Roy, author of many books, starting with The Vague Woman's Handbook, that I had reviewed.

Yesterday, I got a pleasant surprise from another author, Priyanka Gupta, who wrote.. I am "a Computer Science graduate from IIT Delhi turned itinerant writer, and my 1st book, a travel memoir, Journeys Beyond and Within... has just been released." 

She also offered to send me a copy, so I can review it on my blog, which she is a reader of.. a pleasant double surprise. So, as I said, you never know.. 

Reading Habit and Authors

 Nishka Rathi introduced me to a new author a couple of years ago. In a bookstore I have explored new authors too, for instance a couple of Japanese authors unknown to me, such as Kazuo Ishigara. Liked some of the new stuff too.

But I generally prefer a few known authors of fiction, such as Rex Stout, Agatha Christie, AA Fair aka Erle Stanley Gardner (he wrote under two names, for two sets of characters he created). And the Japanese Haruki Murakami, whose writing is surreal.

For humour of different kinds, my preferences are Dave Barry, PG Wodehouse, and in Marathi, the incomparable Pu. La. Deshpande. Also intergalactic humour from Douglas Adams.

In non-fiction, I like biographies, and thoughtful people like Osho and J. Krishnamurti who write about philosophy, and life's meaning.

My book collection has not stopped growing, and I am scared I may be buried under a pile of books some day.

Womens' Day

 Continuing on the theme, I continue to meet a lot of women who are women of substance, to borrow a well-known phrase, from diverse fields, at work or on visits to various places- these include visiting faculty or guests who visit our institutions. I recently met a lady who lives in Lagos, and had attended a Harvard course -she's a consultant. By the way, she also met a classmate of mine there-Narayan Das.

A few women, like the founder of Bandhej, and the Dean of NIFT Delhi, I happened to meet at the NIFT event in Gandhinagar recently, where I shared the stage with them briefly. I similarly happened to meet Rama Bijapurkar who is from the Marketing Research industry, a few years ago when we shared the stage at an event in Jaipuria Institute at NOIDA, I believe.

Of course, there are a lot of non-celebrity colleagues who I enjoy meeting every now and then, and many students too. I met Ananya Nandi De from IMT recently, after 2010 maybe. She works in sourcing (for an MNC), which not many do, at least among women. Here she is, with Raka, her hubby.

In Bangalore, I met Pooja Varun after many years, and found she runs a Food Park. Also has started a new business. Chatted with Swati Sinha, who runs Neerya, an online seller of sarees and other garments. She was in a class of mine. Aditi Atre, who runs Rajasthani Rangrez, I haven't been able to meet in person. Remember awarding her a prize at IMT Nagpur though.

Divya Sharma, Divya Singh, are in radio anchoring and digital marketing, respectively. Shatakshi is into her own digital agency too. Shraddha Nigdikar, who I haven't met in a while, for a good reason. She was doing a Master's in Psychology. After her MBA, that is. 

There are also authors, like Khyati Jha, and budding authors, like Anushka Mishra. And poets, like Anuja Anand. And musicians like Shruti Sharma and Shweta Sinha. And people with great taste in dinners- like Tosha Dubey, Meghana Joshi, Abha Kulkarni. And those who are like pure sunshine- like Sheetal Garg and Shweta Kushal. And some who are just special for a variety of reasons- Prachi Jain, Anusha Soni for example. Some bankers like Ankita Joshi and Swati Jain-coincidentally, both from BoB.

And next gen. friends like Rimjhim Verma, who don't mind being friends with oldies. 

Creative People

 Poets- Wordsworth, etc.

Authors- Murakami, the guy who wrote Zorba the Greek, Gerald Durrell, PG Wodehouse, Agatha Christie, Erle Stanley Gardner, Rex Stout in English, Pu.La. Deshpande and Bha. Ra. Bhagwat in Marathi

Playwrights- Shakespeare, Girish Karnad, Mahesh Dattani.

Songwriters/lyricists- Anand Bakshi, Neeraj, Majrooh Sultanpuri, Gulshan Bawra,..

Music Composers- SD Burman, RD Burman, OP Nayyar, Ravi, Roshan, Rajesh Roshan..

Photographers- Don't know all their names, but many over the years

Film directors- Kurosawa, Guru Dutt, the man who directed Cinema Paradiso, Ramesh Sippy, Shyam Benegal, the director of Lunch Box, Manmohan Desai, J. Lee Thompson (McKenna's Gold), Alfred Hitchcock, Mel Brooks, 

Comics creators- Goscinny and Uderzo, Herge, Lee Falk (Mandrake and Phantom were his creations), Walt Disney

And of course, ordinary mortals, many of whom I know in all these categories and more!

Authors Create Characters

 Hercule Poirot, Perry Mason, Sherlock Holmes, James Bond.. almost everyone in our circles (readers, film-goers) knows these characters. Some of us may be aware of Nero Wolfe, Bertha Cool and Donald Lam, and a few others too. Cartoonists did that too. R.K. Laxman's Common Man, or Mario Miranda's Miss Fonseca are examples.

Creating a new character is not easy. You have to give him/her a personality like a real woman/man, and make some of their mannerisms or characteristics unique, like the egg-shaped head, the constant talk about "the little grey cells" and a few French words/phrases in the case of Hercule Poirot, so the reader starts visualising the character. 

In my brief writing journey, I am proud of having created two characters, at least. Two humans, that is, and a mosquito, Anopheles. She has views about us humans, and they are not always charitable. But we are friends, so I take these in my stride. Very intelligent conversationalist, she can talk about any topic. 

The two human characters were Lord Rocheskatchewn (pronounced Rooska-toon), 21^st Earl of Rocheskatchewn and an MBA student, Gurumurthy, who shows the Lord around the campus when he visits IIM Bangalore.

Pune Lit Fest 2017

Attended a session at the Pune International Literary Fest that had a lot of fireworks. Gems like "Authors don't have a clue about what they are doing" and "Why aren't people walking out? Most readers are kind and forgiving" were flying around through the session, thanks to Shatrujeet Nath. I forgot the books that he has written - I think some fantasy about Vikramaditya Gathas is one of them. But the session was great fun, with the authors ranging from serious to the comic. (note I said authors, not their books. I have read only one of the four, Harimohan Paruvu -spelt wrongly in the leaflet!)  Anyway, this was my debut as an attendee at any lit fest, and I must say you can learn something from attending one. For one, it's free, and you get to see a variety of people, from the celebrities to the intellectuals to the pretenders (and some real authors too). The hall was packed, and some might say it was due it being air-conditioned, but they could be wrong.Hari spoke about the craft of writing and how it gets better with more writing. Ankita shared her emotions at being cut to size (her novel, rather) by her editor, and so did Shatrujeet. He had written two books instead of one, he sportingly admitted. There were comments baout rejections (around twenty is par for the course?) and about research involved in writing even fiction, to make the background authentic, and it was a lively discussion, well-moderated by Vasudev Murthy.

Another highlight of the event after this one, was a panel with film women, of which Pooja Bhatt and Ashwiny Iyer Tiwari were the highlights. Ashwiny recently directed two good films, and was of the view that directors are back in business rather than stars. I certainly hope so, and look forward to more films like Bareilly ki Barfi and Nil Battey Sannata, the two good films that she did.

I liked a quip from Pooja Bhatt about growing up with Mukesh Bhatt who is a baniya and is not interested in changing the world, and Mahesh Bhatt, the maverick. She also spoke about how women in Bollywood are asked to keep their opinions to themselves or be like Tanuja who was sidelined (they boasted). Pooja's response was that she admired Tanuja, and did not mind being like her at all.

Resolving Resolutioning

Ok, this may not exist as a word, but it's obvious by its timing that it's about resolution-making. I have  resolutely been against making any resolution of any kind, because I have no clue at all on how to make them see the light of day. The only one I can probably keep is to read a few more books. If they happen to be of the quality of Zorba the Greek, or any of the creations of Wodehouse, all the better. I have also managed to discover a few other good authors over the last few years, through browsing at bookstores, or through 'friend'ly recommendations.

Some of these are Haruki Murakami, Bill Bryson, Sadat Hasan Manto, Alain de Botton, Umberto Eco, Devapriya Roy (The Vague Woman's Handbook), Saurav Jha (The Upside Down  Book of Nuclear Power), Fritjof Capra (Uncommon Wisdom), Subroto Bagchi, Julian Barnes (his 'Nothing to be Frightened of', an autobiography of a kind), Raju Bharatan and Ashok Ranade (on Hindi films and music). Some autobiographical stuff was also very readable, as in Leela Naidu, Michael Caine, and Kishore Biyani (the story of his starting Big Bazaar). Currently, I am reading the autobiography of Suchitra Krishnamoorthi, the heroine of one of my favourite films- Kabhi Haan Kabhi Naa. Someone recently recommended Charlie Chaplin's autobiography, and I resolve to read it sometime soon.

Other than these, I have also read some good blogs by Harimohan, Vinod Ekbote, Diamond Head and some others like Parul Kashyap Thakur, Meghna Sinha, Gowri Kishore and a couple of IIM Indore students. Also wrote quite a few blogposts, and was happy to see the readership climb in unexpected corners of the globe.

Through the Window by Julian Barnes - Book Review

This is the third book by Julian Barnes that I have read (well, most of it). Each one was different. Only one was fiction.

This one is a collection of essays about authors. George Orwell, Michel Houellebecq (Atomised was the title his novel had in English, translated from French) , Hemingway, Flaubert (rather, Madame Bovary), Kipling, and a few more.

This is an intriguing book, because writers rarely write about other writers- at least not that much. Rather than a traditional review, I will give you a few passages/quotes from this book.

Michel Houellebecq

"It is in our relations with other people, that we gain a sense of ourselves; it's that, pretty much, that makes relations with other people unbearable."

"Anything can happen in life, especially nothing."

Orwell

"All art is to some extent, propaganda."

Ernest Renan, quoted in the chapter about Orwell

"Getting its history wrong is part of being a nation."

Some wonderful anecdotes, and more, about the lives and inclinations of some well-known (and some not) authors. If you are into this sort of reading, wonderful stuff. Well-written.

An Angular View

Everyone looks good at a particular angle, if you have looked at yourself in the mirror (I am not asking how often, by the way-I am focussed on the topic of discussion). Your best angle might be from the left top, or the right front, or centre, below. Film stars know this too well, and try not to let the unflattering angles intrude on their popularity. A pretty face can turn ugly when viewed from the wrong angle, as anyone stealing glances at one would know. Some stars even flaunt their curves, as I remember one particular lady did, as in ....don't lie (in this case, the angle was, shall we say, different?). Guru Dutt and his ilk had great camera angles and lighting, to keep their filmi characters looking surreal.

Anyway, what I am trying to prove is that angles are very important. Journalists are always on the lookout for the right angle (acute or obtuse) on a story, or a twist, so to speak. So are writers/authors, of books or plays or short stories and screenplays. Mystery writers from Agatha Christie to Rex Stout thrive on creating that new angle so that the reader is kept guessing whodunit till the last couple of pages. It keeps the little grey cells of the reader engaged.

Some new angles are sorely needed to break the monotony of life. So put on your thinking caps, and look into the camera...at the right angle, of course.

20000 and Counting

This is a unique birthday gift I received a week ahead of the day, and truly cherish it. 20,000 views of this blog, I mean. When I started it, I thought it might interest one or two stray visitors, but I was wrong. Being wrong never felt so good. Also proves I am getting a bit spiritual, like wishing for things that are virtual rather than real.

I wanted to write about authors and their names and what they might suggest. Wilde, for instance, sounds wild, and unbounded by convention. He was one of the best comic writers of his century, and his quotes can be peppered into any conversation and win you brownie points.

Dickens' name turned into unexpected expressions like 'What the dickens' which may not befit the man who wrote some classics like The Tale of Two Cities and a lot more. Why the dickens his name got chosen for this honuor, no one can tell.

Homer has now been immortalised in a comic series by the name Simpsons, as the guy who epitomises (mostly) what is wrong with the world, and like the Common Man of Laxman, is always interesting.

What is the worth of a Wordsworth today? Poetry as an art form is almost dead, and may not survive another century. So we may have to fall back on the 19th century poets mostly Keats, Byron, Shelley, Wordsworth types forever.

You probably need a name like Baldacci to succeed in the cut-throat world of global fiction stakes, but a Bhagat will do in the Indian bestseller space. 

Also, the male domination continues, though the black and white distinctions of yore are being replaced by Shades of Grey (pun intended).

Well, more on this theme in a sequel.

3 Idiots

The unseemly controversy over the story credits has not stopped 3 idiots from becoming a big hit. Chetan Bhagat does have writing skills that connect with the masses. The same can be said of Rajkumar Hirani who made two brilliant films caled Munnabhai MBBS and Lage Raho Munnabhai.

I have not seen the movie yet, but will see it because it was shot in my alma mater, IIMB. It would be good to revisit the campus anytime. But coming back to author's dilemmas, usually authors are not treated very well by the film fraternity in India is what I feel- I am not referring to the current film here, because I really don't know what happened. The mediocrity of most stories used for films is amazing. It cannot be due to the dearth of good writers. I see old movies (I just saw Ram aur Shyam, and Bobby again) and there were good stories in them. Rather than copying a Hollywood script, film-makers should encourage original writing for their movies. Some examples even in recent times are Lagaan, Jodhaa Akbar, and Gangster.