Interview with Zafar Anjum

A recent interview of Amitav Ghoshcontains what many consider gaffeson the writer's part. Perhaps thefault lies in interview overdose says,Anindita Sengupta.

India offers untrammeled freedom. I'mnot certain about this but writerAmitav Ghosh seems to be. "That's one

of the wonderfully liberating things aboutIndia; it lets you be exactly who you want tobe," he said in a recent interview with LilaAzam Zanganeh for Guernica magazine.Predictably, this roused some rants, espe-cially on Facebook where it was hotly dis-cussed in some circles.

Being 'exactly who you want to be' can bethorny in India unless you are upperclass, upper caste and male. Womenacross most classes are not acquainted

with this brand of clear, refreshing free-dom. Neither are Dalits.

The difficulty of this is not that some-body, just anybody, has made the state-ment but that the person is one of ourfinest writers and intellectuals. His wordscarry weight. People who don't know bet-ter may, on reading this, think cheerilythat India is indeed a place of amazingliberty or liberation.

As blunders go, this one gains prickli-ness because it's also a reminder of theaccusation that Indians writing in Englishoften face. Elitism.

Ensconced in privilege, out of touchwith reality and unable to write aboutuniverses outside their own—these arethe charges. Some of Ghosh's statementsin this interview help the perception.(Elsewhere, he talks about how "almosteveryone" he knows "constantly" travelsbetween continents and nation-states.)I'm pained in a personal way. This is the

person who wrote The Shadow Lines, adeeply affecting saga which examinedamong other things, the identity issues ofBangladeshi refugees. Why is he spoutingclichés that sit better in the mouths ofIndia-shining political campaigners?

More importantly, this makes me think of the writer as celebrity, and the perils ofthis. Writers have always been expectedto be articulate and thoughtful, intellectu-al (and moral) beacons.

Whether this expectation is fair or not isanother debate. Many of us look to writ-ers for that rare and strange quality, wis-dom. Frequently, they provide this notjust in the books they write but also viaarticles, essays and interviews. With

CONNECTWhen In Doubt Pg 10

Quiz

Pg 14JustKids

Pg 15AuthorProfile

Volume 2 Issue 7www.justbooksclc.comblog.justbooksclc.com

September 2011 For limited circulation

A JustBooks Publication

contd on pg 2...

Anindita Sengupta

2 JustBooks Connect - September 2011

From the Editor’sDesk

How many times you havewanted to write and youdid write but felt the

thoughts that were so clear in yourmind, you have not been able tocapture them in words.

Then you chided yourself thateveryone cannot be a writer. Howdoes one become a writer? Shouldone be born with the writing talentor can one acquire it?

Similar questions come up whenone talks about reading as a habit.What makes one a reader? Howcan we encourage reading andhelp people acquire this habit?

In our quest to find answers tosuch questions, we at JustBookscame to a conclusion that perhapsif we can bring out the variousfacets of our literary, publishingand printing industry and peopleinvolved in them, in form of inter-esting stories, feature articles,interviews, etc. and put themtogether in a magazine format, itmight inspire people to take up abook.

We have been working on such aliterary magazine and will sharemore details with you soon. Sowatch out for this space!

Now coming to this edition, ourlead article focuses on why famousand well-established writers,whom we believe to represent ourintelligentsia, make statementsthat not just create controversy butchanges our opinion about them.

Sometimes the statements aremisconstrued or said in haste butsometimes they are meant to bewhat they are!

We also have an interview withthree promising multi faceted per-sonalities, who share their journeyas a writer with us. Some of thequestions raised at the beginningof this column will have an answerin their reply.

We hope that reading aboutthese writers will prompt ourmembers to start writing andsending in their contributions tous.

As usual, do tell us what youthink of this edition and send usyour feedback to [email protected].

Internet magazines mushroominglike a bad case of acne, opportunitieshave multiplied.

Celebrity writers are barraged byrequests from small and big journalsand what was once driven by anurgent need to say something hasdevolved into a weekly task to beticked off the to-do list.

We can agree solemnly over chaithat writers should know better thanto air their views when tired, drunk,sleepy, brain-dead, zoned, distractedor numb. But publicity is tempting.Email interviews make things eveneasier. Shout into the void and some-one will reply. If the shout's notalways lucid, it will hopefully beburied under twenty other inter-views.

It's impossible for anyone to be wiseon tap, all the time. The answer, itwould seem, is to say no more often.When in doubt, shut up.

Reclusiveness may be considered a psy-chological negative, a symptom of anxi-ety, fear or paranoia, but in this case it's inorder.

J.M. Coetzee didn't show to collect hisNobel prize and sent a recorded accept-ance speech instead.

More recently at the Jaipur LiteraryFestival, he refused to talk before read-ing, letting the words in his book suffice.This may be an extreme-and let's face it,we readers love our celebrities just asmuch as Hollywood junkies love theirs-but restraint can be sexy.

We have the opposite of that in SirVidia who unfailingly entertains us yearafter year. Lately, he made an equine ani-mal of himself while speaking at the

Royal Geographical Society. And I don'tmean horse. Women writers, he said, hada "narrow view of the world" and were too"sentimental". This is because a womanwas "not a complete master of a house, so thatcomes over in her writing too".

Journalist and critic Nilanjana Roypoints out that this should not shock any-one because "a list of Sir Vidia's targetsover the decades includes Africans, Musliminvaders in India, infies (inferior people) of allcolours and races, Indian women writers, hiswives, his lovers, his friends, his editors,including the nonagenarian Diana Athill, theissuers of worthless degrees (Oxbridge), fool-ish people, people who do not serve him hisvegetables in separate dishes…".

His arrogance is certainly apparent. Onany women writer being equal to him, SirVidia said: "I read a piece of writing and

within a paragraph or two I knowwhether it is by a woman or not. Ithink [it is] unequal to me."

From all hearsay and basedon the couple of times I've methim in person, Ghosh is notanything like Sir Vidia.Perhaps, he didn't quite meanwhat he said. Or didn't mean itlike that. Or something. MaybeI'm off the mark by miles.Maybe he meant every word.Let's hope not.

Source Credits:

http://www.guernicamag.com/interviews/2674/ghosh_5_15_11/

http://akhondofswat.blogspot.com/2011/06/speaking-volumes-some-notes-on-sir.html

http://www.thehindu.com/arts/books/article2071298 .ece

contd from pg 1...

First, the Berglunds. Patty and Walter areideal neighbours, loving parents andupstanding members of American subur-

bia. Patty is humble to the point to self deprecation,

remembers people's birthdays and knows whereto recycle batteries.

Walter is well-meaning and gentle. But thereare several chinks in this middle class bliss: Patty

loves their younger child Joey too much, at least one neighbourfinds her condescending and men find her too charming. Moresurprising is the fact that Joey is having sex at 12 with his 13-year-old neighbour and soon decides to move in next door.

FreedomJonathan Franzen4th Series Press

Anindita Sengupta

Evening is the Whole DayPreeta SamarasanHarperCollins

Set in post-independence Malaysia, PreetaSamarasan's impressive debut novelexplores how the coils of family can bind

and strangle. The British have left and Malaysiais a tumultuous land heaving with the strug-gles and competitions of its three primaryraces. In the midst of political turmoil, aTamilian family manages their equally tumul-

tuous (though less obviously bloody) relationships, and tries toremain sane. For the most part, Samarasan exercises consider-able control over her prose, unleashing torrential descriptionwhen required and switching to a sparer register at moments ofkeen tension or menace. There is quite a bit of humour here aswell. Samarasan has crafted a novel that is dark and honest, andone that holds much meaning to ponder.

Anindita Sengupta

Burnt ShadowsKamila ShamsiePicador

Burnt Shadows treads ambitiously acrossa lot of terrain-cities and language, tur-moil, loss, survival, and love-and in

doing so, manages to move, bruise and heal. The story begins with a prologue: a man in a

prison cell wonders "How did it come to this".In four separate, intricately drawn sections

about Nagasaki, Delhi, Karachi and New York,Shamsie unravels the answer to that question. Knowing the trajec-tory, one might imagine that the rest is predictable but it's notreally. There is enough unexpectedness and nuance to carry thestory beyond the severity of war polemic. And yet, the larger his-tories that inform and affect these individual lives are alwaysthere, barely hidden away like the bird-shaped burns on Hiroko'sback.

Anindita Sengupta

The Big QuestionsSteven E. Landsburg Pocket Books

The big philosophical questions aregrouped into four categories byLandsburg: What is reality? What is the

nature of our beliefs? How do we gain knowl-edge? What is right and wrong? Ideas andmethods of mathematics, physics and eco-nomics are used to understand these big ques-tions more rigorously.

Landsburg, who earlier gave us The Armchair Economistand More Sex is Safer Sex, has done it again: provoking uswith big questions, novel explanations and leaving us to wres-tle with more questions. Over all this is a fantastic travel-read:short, witty and important.

Dr. Rajagopalan

Crucial Confrontations: Tools for resolving bro-ken promises, violated expectations and bad behav-iorKerry Patterson, Joseph Grenny, Ron McMillan and Al SwitzlerTata McGraw-Hill

Crucial Confrontations talks about howwe can express our disappointments andexpectations.

The authors teach us with relevant examples,what we need to do before, during and afterholding a crucial confrontation.

The book provides useful strategies for corpo-rate executives to hold people accountable fortheir non performance.

Though there are no guarantees that confrontation wouldmagically transform people around us, the authors offer manyeasy to understand strategies for leaders to act as facilitators,enablers and supporters.

Manjula Sundharam

DeliveranceGauri Deshpande, Translated by Shashi DeshpandeWomen Unlimited

This novella was originally written in1987 in Marathi and recently translatedinto English by Shashi Deshpande.

The fact that it was written in a regionalIndian language and that too well over twodecades ago has a special significance. Certainsubjects were not openly discussed then andwe, in India, had a number of 'sacred cows'that we did not address in an open forum. TheIndian notion of motherhood was one such

sacrosanct image. Gauri Deshpande clinically examines amother-daughter relationship, a family dynamic that is volatileand full of its own unresolved issues.

Dr. Rajeshwari Ghose

JustBooks Connect - September 2011 3

For detailed reviews check out justbooksclc.com


A Paean to LoveIn the hills

Anuradha Roy's second novel TheFolded Earth is a deeply evoca-tive and compassionate love

story. Love is an overused word that hasbeen reduced to banality and yet there isno other word that so aptly conveys theessence of this book.

This multi layered and complex storyexplores love in the very realand deep sense of the word.It is not only about the lovebetween people but everycharacter, the flora and faunaand the place itself areimbued with love.

Ranikhet particularly is gen-tly drawn more as characterthan a place where the storyunfolds. At one level the novelcould be read as an elegy forboth Ranikhet (and other suchhill stations) and for DiwanSahib. Diwan Sahib, the gentlyageing, ex-finance minister of theNawab of Surajgarh is a centralfigure and the grand old man ofRanikhet.

The story unfolds in Ranikhetwhere a young widow Maya hasbeen living and working at SaintHilda's school. Maya's marriage to ayoung Christian Michael Secuira sooutraged her father that he disownsand refuses to see her again. A fewshort years after their marriage thoughMichael is tragically killed at 1500-feetduring a trekking expedition.

Maya flees Hyderabad for Ranikhet tobe closer, at least in spirit, to Michael. Shejoins St. Hilda's school as a teacher andcreates an alternate family.

There is Diwan Sahib —her landlord —an irascible old man who loves his drink,is fabled to have the secret letters ofEdwina Mountbatten and JawaharlalNehru and has been working on a biogra-phy of Jim Corbett for the past manyyears.

He initiates Maya into the life and ways

of hill dwellers. There is Charu, Maya'sstudent who is still unable to read orwrite despite Maya's best efforts. Shefalls in love with a half Nepali waiterand Maya is a sort of intermediary andspectator of their blossoming love story.

Finally there is Veer, Diwan Sahib'snephew. Maya is guiltily drawn to himbut he is a mysterious character who hashis own secrets to hide and discover.

Each character has their particularstory and yet together they form the richtapestry of Maya's world.

Ranikhet, Diwan Sahib and his crum-bling old house referred to as the LightHouse provide Maya a refuge and a lov-ing space for healing. And together theysucceed in seducing a plains-dwellingMaya into becoming a hill-person.

She notes themoment of her transformation,

"Though I cannot know precisely when it hap-pened, a time had come when I had become ahill-person who was only at peace where theearth rose and fell in waves like the sea."

The novel also follows the standard andmore usual love stories, although each isunique. The elusive love letters betweenthe last Vicerine Edwina Mountbattenand India's first Prime MinisterJawaharlal Nehru frame and permeatethe other stories with a mix of desperatelonging and a melancholic nostalgia. The

young Charu, for example, compelled bythe necessity of a distant love learns final-ly to read and write. And more astonish-ingly she, who has never even venturedto the next village, recklessly heads off toDelhi by bus on her own to find her loveKundan Singh. The thought of whatcould and almost did happen to her ischilling. Sheer innocence and guts thoughhave a chance of being rewarded - at leastin fiction.

Roy's prose is sheer poetry. It is ele-gant, lyrical, chiseled and polished toperfection. The images are imaginativeand unforgettable. Charu'sGrandmother, known to all as 'Ama'for instance is described thus, "Her eyeshad a quiverful of lines at their corners."But aside from this particularly strik-ing image we also know her by herloud voice "that could carry across sev-eral valleys." though not all the char-acters are hill people. There are alsocameo appearances by well knownurban scholars such asRamachandra Guha - "a tall dis-tracted-looking man in glasses" whocomes to visit Diwan Sahib to cullout information about the Nehru-Edwina letters that he is sup-posed to possess. The singledamning fact about Guha inDiwan Sahib's book is that "hedidn't have a single drink." It isthese insightful and precisedetails that form vivid word

portraits that bring alive bothmajor and minor characters.

The Folded Earth is not just a pastoralor hill romance. Roy's concern for theenvironment, the destruction of the hill-side by a rampaging and heedless urban-ization, consumerism, the manipulationof people by cynical politicians and theinroads made by strident fundamen-talisms simmer just below the surface.

Although this is a quiet novel it isdeeply centered and grounded in a corephilosophic conception of the meaning ofan ethical life that is in harmony withnature and people.

The Folded Earth

Anuradha RoyMacLehose Press

“Though I cannot know preciselywhen it happened, a time hadcome when I had become a hill-person who was only at peacewhere the earth rose and fell inwaves like the sea."

Geetanjali Singh Chanda


Building blocks

Aravind Adiga's Last Man inTower is a quick paced, entertain-ing read about the battle for real

estate in Mumbai, told from the perspec-tives of various protagonists, themain being Yogesh Murthy orMasterji.

The residents of VishramSociety, Tower A, know they liveon the wrong side of the tracks, inVakola. It is in fact a neighbour-hood so questionable that manyof them, like 'Communist Aunty'Mrs. Rego, whose sister lives inBandra (West), are not quite surehow to pronounce it -- 'Va-KHO-la or VAA-k'-la?'

In the Mumbai of shiny high-rises with foreign names andincreasing slums, Vishram is arundown, could-crumble-any-time mansion that was estab-lished in 1959 as an example of'good housing for good Indians'.

You need to climb up the dingystairwell, though 'an Otis liftexists, but unreliably so'. The build-ing itself, once pink in colour, isnow 'a rainwater-stained, fungus-licked grey,' says Adiga, describ-ing Mumbai's scores of decrepithousing societies in one very visual sen-tence. Last Man in Tower is full ofdescriptions like these, of Vishram and itsresidents, of Vakola and its slums and ofMumbai, the ultimate mix of muck,money and middle class ambition.

Into this mire steps real estate develop-er Dharmen Shah, who makes the resi-dents an offer of redevelopment they can-not refuse. Most of them don't, as theoffer spells the chance to move to a betterapartment in a better location.

In other words, an overall better life.Few people refuse. The social workerMrs. Rego, who has a deep distrust ofbuilders and an abiding attachment toany cause, the elderly Mr. and Mrs. Pinto

and Masterji, who starts by refusing insolidarity with his friends and then onprinciple.

If the premise of the book is a tad pre-dictable — a simple man challenging amore powerful one — what saves it frombeing so is Adiga's approach towardseach character.

He spares no effort in meticulouslydrawing out each one of them andplumbing hidden depths. The disgrun-tled yet hopeful Mrs. Puri dreams of abetter life with her son Ramu, who suf-fers from Down's Syndrome; the 'battle-ship' Mrs. Rego constantly tries to trump

her sister who has so far trumped her inmarriage and area of residence; the inef-fectual secretary Kothari longs to see thepink flamingos of his African youth andthe blind Mrs. Pinto who finds her wayby instinct through the dingy stairwellsof Vishram and cannot think of movinganywhere else.

While retired schoolteacher YogeshMurthy or Masterji remains the

central character, he isn't exactly the heroeither. His rival Dharmen Shah has all thecharacteristics of the unscrupulousbuilder (bribery, coercion, mistress halfhis age) but is also a self-made man whonever quite forgets his struggles andleaves behind a twenty rupee note as a

'surprise' for a construction worker's fam-ily on a site visit.

Masterji is morally upright and trueto his belief to the end but also

comes across as a tight-fisted man unableto empathise with anyone else's plight.

Adiga's brilliant writing ensures thatwe shift our sympathies from character tocharacter as we read along.

We empathise with Masterji, the oldman who has lost his daughter to a freakaccident, wife to old age and ailment andis somewhat estranged from his only son.But we also understand Mrs. Puri and herdesire to have a better house and a bit

more money so that she doesn't have tospend her life washing her son's bot-tom.

Adiga is excellent in creating thisdilemma. For most part, our sympa-thies lie with Masterji, especially as hisonce kindly neighbours take turns inmaking him feel like an outsider andhis own son turns his back on him.

You appreciate him for staying true tohis cause but also wonder what is thetrue reason behind his refusal to sign onthe dotted line when the building, asthe author doesn't fail to remind us, isalmost crumbling anyway? Is it simplyto save the place where he has the max-imum memories or a stubborn ego mas-sage?

Adiga remains ambiguous, giving ussomething to be frustrated about andmull on.

His Masterji is a wonderful character-isation, peppered with comic and seri-ous notes, from his idealistic beliefs tohis refusal to ever step on a scrap of theTimes of India because an ex-student ofhis writes for the paper. An ex-student

who doesn't bother to answer his letterslater in the book. Adiga extends thecomic tone to most of the characters, giv-ing the sinister turn of events in the booka lighter touch.

Ultimately, this is a 'Bombay' book thatanyone who has ever battled the localtrain crowds or waded through kneedeep dirty water during the incessantmonsoon or set their times by the tapwould be able to identify with. It is also areflection of the city itself, indeed of mostcities across the country, where rampantconstruction is pushing lesser privilegedcitizens to a corner of no choice andwhere it seems corruption can conqueranything.

Reshmi Chakraborty

Last Man in Tower

Aravind AdigaFourth Estate

Last Man Standing

How many times have you won-dered- I wish I could write. The oneswho can write are wondering whowill publish my work and those youget published are worried about whowill read their writing!

Pushpa Achanta tried to findanswers to these questions fromsome established and some emergingwriters.

She talked to Zafar Anjum (ZA),who is a journalist, poet, novelist,film maker; Cyril Wong (CW) a poet,author, journal editor, arts centremanager and to M. C. Raj (MCR),who is a rights campaigner, commu-nity leader, and an author.

Here they share their stories onwhat got them to start writing, howthey published their first work andthe disappointments and accoladesthey received in their writing jour-ney.

How and when did you start writing?

ZA: I began penning Urdu essays, earlyon. Prizes in school and college competi-tions encouraged me. Essays distilled mythoughts on specific topics; cogent pres-entation was an art. I dabbled in poetrytoo-I never attempted short stories origi-nally. I'm not into poetry nowadays.

CW: With authenticity and artistic com-mitment, I started writing during univer-sity. Many suppressed emotions andideas about growing up, school andnational service experiences figured inmy poems.

MCR: I began writing in 1984. When mywife Jyothi and I initiated work amongTumkur's rural poor, I authored anunpublished book called Tumkur At aGlance. After two years, I collated ourexperiences and successes into anotherunpublished work named TheBeginnings.

Which was your first published workand when? How did that occur?

ZA: My first publication: in class VI, a

respected journal from Aligarh fea-tured my essay on sustainable ener-gy that one of my teachers sent tothem, unknown to me. My firstnovel (or novella, published in2000), outrageously titled OfSeminal Fluids rebelled againstmyself, my friends and the publish-ing world's norms. After my shortstories appeared in Webzines, Itook them seriously.

CW: Year 2000 heralded my firstpoetry collection SquattingQuietly from FirstfruitsPublications - an earnest book fruc-tified through my desire to writedifferently into a literary scene thatfelt monotonous and repressed.The self is highly neutered in ourlocal literature; and my poetryhighlights the nudity of a self livingthrough intense feelings (god for-bid deep feelings or individualismin Singapore).

MCR: My first published bookwas in 1997 about Foucault's analysis ofthe dominant society. I disagreed with hisconclusion that problematizing isenough. A writer must also express whathe or she thinks as strategies to addressproblems. Critical acclaim for my bookFrom Periphery to Centre - An Analysisof the Paradigms of Globalization,Casteism and Dalitism encouraged me towrite more.

What was the response to your initialwriting? Did any specific recognition,appreciation, criticism affect you?

ZA: My initial fiction work's criticismtaught me much. I won a short story con-test to represent India at a SAARCWriters Conference in Colombo in 2002.Little Magazine publishing and choosingmy short story as a finalist for a newwriter award in 2006 was honourable andunexpected.

CW: Terrible. Media and some readersloved the book. But many older folks inthe "establishment" disapproved my non-social, too-personal poetry. That onlymade me to continue writing.

MCR: Launching a series on Dalit liter-ature, Sage Books said that my bookwould be the first. But despite appreciat-ing it, they could not publish it. Shocked,I started publishing my books myself.

Hearteningly, some Bangalore collegesorganized seminars on my first work.

My next book Dalitology, releasedbefore 6,000 people (from across India) inBangalore sold 2,000 copies quickly.Being recognized as Dalitology's authorthrills me. Disappointingly, some friendsdisassociated with me after Dalitology. Ilike Rajiv Malhotra's critical analysis ofDalitology. I want to know if readersshatter my views with their understand-ing.

What makes you write now? Which areyour favourite themes?

ZA: Underdogs, injustice and systemiccoercion move me. Perhaps, I seek world-ly moral balance through my writings.Apparently, my stories explore thepathology of modernity.

I've no favourite themes but unjust actsalways provoke me. And love and humanrelationships. Nowadays, I am interestedin chronicling lives of people touched bythe global financial meltdown.

CW: Favourite themes-love; our con-flicted relationships to the hole at the cen-tre of all our lives.


A tete-e-tete on writingPushpa Achanta

In conversation

Zafar Anjum


MCR: Writing is my habit. I write atnight. Recently, I began penning fiction.This year I have two published novels(Raachi and Yokiana) and some non-fic-tion works. My third novel is ready - I'mintensively authoring another.

My favourite theme is philosophy. ButI also write on Psychology andSpirituality. Lately, I've entered love,sexuality and relationship through fic-tion.

Any advice for new and emerging writ-ers?

ZA: Fundamentally, understand yourreason for writing. You are probablywasting your time if you write formoney or fame. Read and write muchwithout hope and despair.

Be very critical about your work.Interact and learn from other writers.And when sure of writing, continue;although realizing your dream mighttake decades.

CW: Read more thanyou write.

MCR: I avoid advis-ing. I want to be a but-terfly attaining absolutefreedom when mature.Harming none, butter-flies drinks nature's nec-tar and die unnoticed.People can be butterfliesmaturing in their ownspace and time.

Have your family mem-bers or friends con-tributed to your writ-ing?

ZA: My family andfriends support me,though I don't showthem my work. Mywife's backing keeps megoing.

CW: My family and

past lovers often inspire my poems. Thepain and the heartache.

MCR: Frequently, I discuss my writingswith my family for their reflection.

I validate my fiction with my childrenas they know the taste of modern youth. Ivalue my family's support.

Do you enjoy or dislike reading any par-ticular authors, poets and genres?

ZA: I won't read someone because he orshe is a bestseller. Writers can barely cap-tivate me for 300 pages.

I enjoy my favourite Urdu poets' versesand different genres except horror. I lovebiographies, letters and diaries of greatwriters and thinkers.

CW: I hate any poem that does notreflect the soul (or anything defined as"soul"). Many male poets are painful toread (or women trying to imitate men)because they probably prioritize accom-plishments over great emotional urgency.I find novels tedious. I love everythingelse.

MCR: I love deep philosophy.Habermas, Foucault, Chomsky andRadhakrishnan were my favourites.

I like Faranz Fannon. I dislike lighttopics and rhetoric.

Would you like to add anything?

ZA: I don't take my writing seri-ously. I wonder if my writing isworth anything. The talent and pre-cocity of the masters is awe inspir-ing. I've a long way to go.

CW: Nah.

MCR: Having extremely poor,unlettered parents, I'm content at ris-ing from burning ashes. I'm rebel-lious, enjoy oratory and solitude.

My books are apparently tough tounderstand. I load my words withmeaning. I've tried writing lucidly.Perhaps, after my death many willread my writing.

M. C. Raj

Cyril wong

Zafar Anjum

Zafar is a cineaste, an avid blogger(dreamink.blogspot.com) and editorof Kitaab.org and Writersconnect.org,websites dedicated to Asian writingin English. He is an award-winning journalistand fiction writer. An Indian whonow lives in Singapore, Zafar consid-ers himself a film maker too.

Cyril Wong

Wong is called Singapore's first confes-sional poet. He is an author of nine vol-umes of poetry. He is also the poetry jour-nal editor (www.softblow.org) and anoperations manager at The Substation,Singapore’s first independent arts centre.A featured poet of several Literary andWriters Festival, Wong recently completedhis doctoral degree in English literature.

M. C. Raj

Based in Tumkur, Karnataka, Raj is acommunity leader, novelist, non-fictionwriter and campaigner for electoralreforms in India. He has more than 15published books to his name. He writeson philosophy, psychology, spirituality,politics etc. He generally writes on Dalitissues and is an international opinionleader. He leads a powerful DalitMovement in Karnataka.

Khushii has a farm house onKanakapura Road, which she oftenvisits.

There they have animals likecows, dog, sheep and lot of hens.Coconut, Guava and Chikoo treesand some vegetables too. A care-taker family stays there (farmer).

Khushii wrote this poem in herschool's creative writing book andthe topic was given by her teacher.She wants to share this with otherJustBooks' members.

THE FARM

Do you want to go to a farm?

So green, so beautiful and nice

Healthy milk from the farmSo delicious and nice.

Fruits so delicious Yummy apples, bananas and man-

goes tooTill my tummy is full of fruits.

And there are animalsCats, cows and horses too

Which keep you on your toes.

Farmer Penny and the whole gangPond you see looks so nice

And you can make paper boatsand

Leave it on the water.

Do you want to go to a farm?To jump, yell and shriek

The whole day long With loads of fun for all!


Ihave been a member of JustBooks forthe past 10 months. At first, I hadthought it was a shop for books. I

asked my friend if he knew anythingabout it. He said that he was a memberand that it was a library which had allthe books that had been released inIndia and also some other foreign books.I kept pestering my parents until theygot me a membership there.

When I got my membership, therewere so many books to choose from.There were many books that I borrowedfrom JustBooks, mostly from the 'AlexRider' series by Anthony Horowitz andthe 'Eragon' series by ChristopherPaolini.

Reading is a lot of fun. I think manymore people should take JustBooksmembership.

Syamanthak Srikrishnan, 13 yearsJP Nagar - Dollar's ColonyBangalore

Reader’sVoice Kushii H

Reader’s contribution

Khushii is a very talkative and energetic 7-year old girl, who was bornon 6th May, which happens to be the birthday of poet RabindranathTagore too! She loves drawing and colouring, colouring rangoli, readingcomics like Amar Chitra Katha, Chandmama and Tinkle. Khushii alsoloves elderly people a lot. Presently she is studying at National HillView Public School at RR Nagar.

This book was first pub-lished in 1990 and thoughhistorical fiction is close to

my heart, I could never pick upthis dauntingly long (nearly 900pages) book and start reading it.Recently I did. And I am glad Idid it, for Colleen McCullough'spainstaking scholarship and eyefor details have really brought tolife the characters and the histori-cal events of the period.

The year is 110 B.C. The storyis set around two men, GaiusMarius, a rich ambitious man,who does not have the rights ofbirth to political position in theRepublic and Lucius CorneliusSulla, a poor aristocrat withambition who has till the start ofthe novel led an indolent, hedo-nistic amoral existence.

Gaius Marius is seen at thestart as an 'Italian hayseed with noGreek'.

Not being Roman-born was abig deficiency in the class-con-scious Rome of that time andGreek was the language thatevery aristocrat was supposed tospeak fluently. Fortune seeksthem out and a series of circum-stances propel Marius to theposition of First Man in Rome and Sullais also well on his way to the politicalprominence which he achieves in thesecond book of the series.

Around them is a whole plethora ofcharacters from various walks of life thatdraws the reader into a world as real asthe one we live in. There are politicalintrigues, there is massive corruptionincluding vote-buying, tall electionpromises and so on. Does that notsound like today's India rather thanRome at the end of the second centuryB.C.?

Marius's rise begins when he marries

Julia, a girl of powerful political lineage,whose illustrious family, though aristo-cratic, has fallen on relatively hard times.It suits Gaius Julius Caesar, the father, tomarry his daughter to a rich ambitiousman as he has high hopes for his sons'futures that can only be fulfilled if heacquires financial clout. Marius gainsthe family connection required to set himoff on his path to achieve his dream.Caesar's younger daughter is married toSulla.

Though this is not based on historicevidence, in her Author's NoteMcCullough cites her reasons quite con-vincingly for presuming this. Thisbrings the two men together and theybecome close allies.

The absorbing story of the rise of thesetwo protagonists is set against a back-ground of magnificent scenes of epicmagnitude - the Jugurthine War, theinvasion of the Germanic tribes and agrain crisis leading to a revolt that iscrushed just in time. The battle scenesare vividly graphic and there aredetailed accounts of Marius's plans in his

fight to push back the Germanic hordes.Ms. McCullough's maps are of great helpin bringing out the dimensions of theevents.

I particularly liked the maps showingRome's idea of the world and map of thetown of Rome. Also included are someinteresting illustrations from the busts ofprominent people of the period.

Scenes of domestic life, conversationsthat bring out the mores of the time,their election processes and so on are all

seamlessly woven into thestory without turning theminto history lessons.

Did you know, for exam-ple, that there were largeseveral-storied apartmentblocks in Rome at thattime? Also that womenrarely drank and had to sitin straight chairs to dinewhile the men lounged incouches.

Colleen McCullough'sscholarship is evident butdoes not intrude. She hasappended about a hundredpages of glossary explain-ing the Latin terms, thesocial context and someexplanation as to hersources.

As she herself says in hernote at the end of thenovel, it would have beenimpossible to include a fullbibliography given theextensive nature of herresearch.

I would fault the bookonly for its intimidatinglength; perhaps she couldhave published this in twovolumes instead of one.

This one is very difficult to lift and readin bed!


When in Rome..

Gita Subramanian

Readers’s contribution

The First Man in Rome

Colleen McCulloughAvon

Gita Subramanian worked for manyyears in International schools inHong Kong, where she also ran abook club. She is an avid reader anda published writer as well. She hastranslated three Tamil novels andwon an award in 2010 for one ofthem for best translation from Tamilto English. She is a member ofJustBooks, JP Nagar.

1. “An idiot child screaming in ahospital.”H. G. Wells on George BernardShawLord Byron on John KeatsMartin Amis on MiguelCervantes

2. “There are two ways of disliking poetry; one way is todislike it, the other is to read Pope.”John Keats on Alexander PopeLord Byron on on Alexander PopeOscar Wilde on Alexander Pope

3."The eyes of others our prisons; theirthoughts our cages."Salman RushdieVirginia WoolfRohinton Mistry

4. Who said, "Everything’s wrong on Wikipedia."V.S. NaipaulGore VidalTaslima Nasrin

5. “He has never been known to use aword that might send a reader to thedictionary.”William Faulkner on ErnestHemingwayVladimir Nabokov on Ernest HemingwayDylan Thomas on RudyardKipling

Our new JustBooks Powai branch continues to be featured inthe news media.

The Hindustan Times, Mumbai Edition, carries an article titled'Community based libraries open in City'

"Book aficionados now have another reason to cheer. In yet anotherattempt to boost and encourage the reading habit among Mumbaikars, aBangalore-based venture is opening community-based reading librariestitled JustBooks CLC across the city."

Our plans for Mumbai continue unabated. In this context, they say,"The venture also plans to open more outlets along the city's Western

Railway route by the year-end."We have a community-centric model with a physical shop that offers

members access to books that they can rent, read and return," says D RaviKumar, Senior Manager - Franchise Development, JustBooks CLC.

He, however, adds that they want to focus on offline activities thatencourage people to visit the library rather than simply choosing the booksfrom the e-catalogue.”


JUSTBOOKSJUSTBOOKSTOP 5TOP 5

NNEWEW AARRIVALSRRIVALS1. Leela’s Book by AliceAlbinia2. One Summer by DavidBaldacci3. The Secret Of TheNagas by Amish Tripathi4. Does He Know AMother’s Heart? by Arun Shourie5. 24 Akbar Road by RasheedKidwai

RRECOMMENDEDECOMMENDED1. The Shadow Of TheWind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon 2. Her Fearful Symmetry byAudrey Niffenegger3. Tamarind Mem by AnitaRau Badami 4. The Lost River by MichelDanino 5. The Master Switch by TimothyWu

RRENTALSENTALS1. Only Time Will Tell byJeffery Archer2. Diary of a Wimpy Kid (Book2) by Jeff Kinney 3. Diary of a Wimpy Kid (Book4, 5 and 1) by Jeff Kinney 4. 2 States: The Story Of MyMarriage by Chetan Bhagat5. The Secret Of The Nagas by AmishTripathi

H. G. Wells on George Bernard Shaw, Oscar Wilde on Alexander Pope, Virginia Woolf, Gore Vidal, William Faulkner on ErnestHemingway

Hindustan ke Shaan

From JustBooks blog - http://blog.justbooksclc.com


Food on the road

On a road trip? Wondering whatto eat and where? Like to try dif-ferent authentic cuisines

but not really sure where to findthem? On a stringent budget orfeel like splurging on good food?Highway on My Plate by RockySingh and Mayur Sharma mightjust be the answer to all your gas-tronomic questions. Rocky andMayur are well known for theirfood show on NDTV Good Times,where they take viewers on foodjourneys across the length andbreadth of India.

The book covers 25 states andon an average about 3-5 places ineach state. With about 3-5 foodjoints in each of these places, thebook is a good collection for yourtravel library! Every eatery comeswith a detailed description of thesetting, food specialty, contactinformation, price range and arating on taste, ambience, service,and value for money.

For a traveler, it is of interest toknow the Punjabi dhaba and theidli-dosa joint in the middle of

Rajasthan, or the unique EggFactory and drink-serving, artycrowd at Koshy's in Bangalore.

While you simply cannot dis-miss a 300 page food guide, thebook seems to lack something.The strapline on the cover callsthe book: The Indian Guide ToRoadside Eating; but what it coversmostly are the restaurants andhotels in the cities. An extendedLonely Planet at best is what thebook turns out to be. The duo ofRocky and Mayur miss to discov-

er the biryani haven in Tamil Nadu -Ambur which is literally on theBangalore-Chennai highway and sup-plies thousands of biryani packets dailyto Chennai.

Or the North Karnataka cuisine (cornrotis with brinjal and lentil curries madewith their unusual blend of spices),which is so unique that one cannot findany similarities between that and theBangalore or the coastal (better knownas Udupi) cuisine.

They also skipped the KamatLokaruchi on the busy Bangalore-Mysore highway that causes quite a traf-fic snarl with its multitude of customers.Some drive all the way just to eat thespecial South and North Karnatakathalis and all-you-can-eat breakfast buf-

fets with the choicest of dishes! Udupifood boasts of unique dishes made fromjackfruit, as well as the local buns and'Neer' dosas.

And talking about street food, surelythe food stalls around Sajjan Rao circlein Bangalore deserve a mention for theirsteaming hot idlis, dosas and Badam(almond) milk served every evening toits big fan-following that enjoys andcomes back for more.

Food is more than a basic need; it is away of life, it is part of tradition, culture,economics and natural environment.There is a reason why South Indianstates are mostly rice-eating ones whileNorth Indian ones are wheat-eating, justlike there is there is a very good reasonwhy coastal regions use a lot of coconutin their food preparation than the rest ofthe country.

A brief history of food of a state mighthave made Highway on My Plate moreinteresting.

And though it might be interesting tofind different cuisines in the mostunlikely of places, for a real foodie,authentic food is probably of more inter-est than a pasta and pizza joint in themiddle of South India! 'Gatte ki Sabji' inRajasthan and Ragi dishes in Karnatakaare as local as one can get, but Rockyand Mayur miss out on these delights.While Chinese food might be popular inKolkata, wouldn't a tourist be interestedin typical Bengali food at 6 BallygungePlace or Bhojohori Manna or the biryaniat Arsalan? And it's disappointing tonote that 'Saravana Bhavan', a localfavourite does not feature at all in theChennai listing.

For someone who is clueless aboutIndian food, this book will be helpful,but if you are out sleuthing for authen-tic, traditional food, you are better offdoing your bit of detective work andasking the locals.

Aradhana Janga

Not a lot on their plateHighway On My Plate - TheIndian Guide To RoadsideEating

Rocky Singh & Mayur SharmaRandom House India


Reading in an Age of Distraction

We are living in times wheredigital ubiquity is the order ofthe day and most of us are

constantly switching between checkingemail, surfing the web for the latestheadlines and sports updates, answer-ing the telephone and attending to themobile calls (and SMSes).

In fact, there are some among us whohave the omnipotent Blackberry's andIPhone's to keep us busy. With all thiselectronic "chatter" drowning out thevoice of reflection, we hardly have timeto take a book and read it from cover tocover. Indeed, the "Age of Distraction"where the attention spans are in minutesand seconds means that we hardly havetime to breathe, let alone read.

There are many authors like NicholasCarr who have pointed to the "shallows"that inhabit our minds in this electronicage. There are others who have drawnattention to the "fragmentation" of ourselves because of so much digital "noise"that assaults us from all directions.Studies done in recent years have shownthat the average time spent on a task hascome down to 11 minutes and the needfor constant switching back and forthbetween tasks means that our "e-person-alities" might take over our "offline"selves and there can be a morphing ofboth. Increasingly, many behaviouralexperts are calling upon people to medi-tate or sit still in contemplation if we donot want this to happen.

So, what better way to "logout" fromthe e-world than to pick a book and readit at leisure?

Of course, there are many who wouldwillingly give up the TV remote or puttheir mobiles on discreet to sit down andread. But for those who find it hard totear themselves away from their gadg-ets, there is some advice coming yourway. Reading a book is like sippingwine and it grows on you. Hence, thebest thing to do when you get the time isto sit down and reach for that book thatyou have always wanted and get going.

Never mind the incessant buzz of themessages or the temptation to check themovements of shares and the urge toscroll through the updates on the inter-net. A book is worth reading not onlyfor the pleasure that the joy of readinggives us but also for the moments of

quiet beauty that reading offers as areward. And those moments of quietudeand reflection are well worth the timeand effort spent in reading the book.

If you are wondering, "Why not read aneBook on a Kindle or a Nook?" The

answer is that while reading eBooks iscertainly catching on, nothing can beatthe pleasure of plonking oneself on thefavourite armchair and reading a print-ed book. There are many reasons fordoing so. For starters, an eBook is againa book that is read on a gadget, whenthe objective clearly is to "disconnect"from the virtual world. Next, not manybooks are available in the electronic for-mat (as of now) even though their popu-larity is increasing. Finally, you can

always read the eBooks onyour PC (during breaks atwork). Mind you, I do nothave anything againsteBooks (I like my Kindlevery much!). The point that Iam trying to convey is that Ihave personally experiencedthe "shortened" attentionspans when I read stuff onelectronic devices. There isnothing to beat the joy ofreading a printed book.

Reading in this electronicage is not only about

reading the "right" books(personally, I don't thinkthere are any "right" books.All books are books, period.),but also about reading justfor the "heck" of it. The objec-tive should be to embark ona journey with the book asthe companion and discoverthe sights and sounds ofdelight in the process. Manyof us take books along withus on journeys.

Why not read a book sit-ting at home and transportourselves into the world ofthe characters of the bookand experience their storiesin the same way we reflecton our other experiences.

Reading a book is the per-fect antidote to the lack offocus and concentration forextended durations thatseems to be the malaiseafflicting many of us.

The pleasures of readingare such that once you startreading; the rest follows

much like a musician finds the rightnotes after the initial prelude.

Finally, reading as a habit for childrenshould be taken seriously by parents ifthey want their kids to discover a worldother than TV and Video games andthere are titles galore on all subjects thatinterest kids. There cannot be a betterway to ensure that your kid does notgrow up on gadgets alone if you initiatethem to the wonders of reading.

Writer's Note: There are many books onthe topic that I have written about and infact, the topic was inspired by the recentpublication of a book, from which I have bor-rowed the title.

Musings

Ram Mohan Susarla


Venturing out

Meet Mr. Vinod Shankar, one of thepartners of Trupti Ventures that runsJustBooks Malleshwaram franchise.Vinod also leads Strata Retail'sMarketing department.

Tell us a little bit about yourself andyour partners.

I am a typical Bengaluru boy, whorecently married a typical Bengaluru girl.I was born here and have lived all my lifehere. Travel and food interests me a lot,and if the place is breathtaking and foodis great I dabble with my camera to cap-ture the best of both.

Trupti Ventures has four partners:Rahul (a software engineer), Shajin Serine(a financial analyst), Sabari (a chemicalengineer) and myself. We all have beenfriends for years, right from our schooland college days.

What were you doing before joiningJustBooks as an employee?

In my previous avatar I worked forfour years as a Digital Signal Processingengineer in a large communication com-pany. I still find technology interestingfor it simplifies tasks in everyday life likeissue and return of books at JustBooks.

How has your experience been on work-ing full time and taking care of the fran-chise?

Working at JustBooks has been fun anda learning experience. The best part isyou get to meet varied and interestingpeople every day.

Being a part of organization that's mov-ing from start-up to its growth phase isvaluable. I always wanted to learn andexperience how organization are builtand scaled up.

JustBooks has provided this wonderfulopportunity to me, and I get paid to dowhat I love to do. After joining JustBooksthe time spent at the outlet has reduced tosome extent, though I hope to make upfor that soon.

Why and how did this franchise optionhappen?

I always wanted to start something onmy own as the entrepreneurial bug hadbit me. It was only matter of time beforewe four friends started something.

There were a lot of other ideas that wehad considered — express car wash, trav-el & holidays or a millet-only restaurant.I had become a member of JustBooks,Whitefield and around the same timeSabari and I were attending start-upevent at IIMB, where we came acrossJustBooks as a possible opportunity tostart our entrepreneurial journey.

How has been the customer response toJustBooks as a concept & your library, inparticular?

The customers are delighted to have alibrary like JustBooks at Malleshwaram,which is one of the oldest areas ofBengaluru.

The use of technology for issue andreturn, the vast collection of books anduniversal access across branches hasenabled kids and seniors citizens alike toappreciate JustBooks as a noble concept.

What do you think will be a great addi-tion in terms of value to your existingmembers?

Through JustBooks we provide a serv-ice that means a lot to our members. Toenrich it further, we are looking into pro-viding literary consultants once a week tohelp our members choose books andorganize creative events for children.

How much of your time do you spend atthe JustBooks outlet personally? Howrewarding is the experience of interactingwith your members?

I'm there at the outlet over the week-

ends, some days I spend my eveningsinteracting with our members.

Every member has a unique taste inbooks, and the satisfaction of helpingthem find a particular book is immense.

The members come from varied back-grounds, there are dancers, techies andhomemakers and not to forget ever bub-bling energetic kids! Interacting withkids, knowing that they are reading hasbeen insightful.

What kind of books do you read person-ally? Who are your favourite authors?

I love autobiography and biographiesalong with books related to Indianmedieval history though I used to readSidney Sheldon, Dan Brown, Paulo Coeloand likes in my college days.

I like Indian writers like RamachandraGuha and Subroto Bagchi.

What is your advice to book lovers whowould like to turn entrepreneurs throughJustBooks?

If you are a book lover looking for asimple business, with decent returns onyour investment, then JustBooks is theplace for you.

Along with the profits, the satisfactionthat you get by setting up a JustBooksfranchise in your community adds intan-gible value to your own life.

With presence across five cities, it's onlya matter of time before JustBooks makesits presence across India and becomes asynonym for Library.

Sapana Rawat

Friends with a franchise

There are two worlds in this uni-verse - the human world and theOther Place. The latter is where

the demons reside. Demons are divid-ed into five classes in order of increas-ing power - the marid, afrit, djinn,foliot and imps. The demons of theOther Place do not take any form, butexist as essences, mingling freely and atpeace with each other. Things don't staypeaceful for long, for the humans knowof the demons' presence and frequentlysummon them to do their bidding,which involve taking revenge on otherwizards. As a result of these human feu-dal disputes throughout the ages, thedemons are kept busy.

Our story begins when a 12-year oldwizard, Nathaniel summons 5000-yearold middle ranking djinn Bartimaeus toget back at a much older wizard SimonLovelace, who has humiliated him.Nathaniel is an apprentice who has noteven "formally" summoned his first imp.His master is a mediocre wizard whocan barely summon a foliot, let alone amajor demon like Bartimaeus. So it's nomean achievement that Nathaniel man-ages to summon the demon, unsuper-vised.

However, even though his powers arestrong, his mind is still young andimmature, which leads to him to sendBartimaeus on a reckless mission torecover a powerful item, the Amulet ofSamarkand from Simon Lovelace. Alongthe way, Nathaniel makes several mis-takes, the worst being letting Bartimaeusdiscover his birth name. The birthnames hold great power and demonsaren't particularly fond of the humansso they wait for any opportunity to getback at them. Bartimaeus, a craftydemon grabs it with zeal.

However, with Lovelace seeking torecover his amulet, the duo get intodeep trouble and are soon running fortheir lives. Questions are aplenty on thecourse of the quest: What exactly is theResistance and why do they hate thewizards? Why is Lovelace so desperateto regain the possession of the amuletand what sinister use he has envisionedfor it? Read on to find out!

The book was written and publishedin 2003 and is the first book in theBartimaeus Trilogy. The other twobooks in this trilogy are: The Golem'sEye and Ptolemy's Gate.

This book as a whole is unique in itsway of approaching the subject. Insteadof the conventional style of writingwhich involves making heroes out ofthe human characters, here the story istold from the eyes of the summoneddemon, Bartimaeus.

He is a demon and has radically dif-ferent notions on humanity; still thereaders are drawn to him and think ofhim as the real hero. WhereasNathaniel, the young wizard andBartimaeus' master, whose story is alsotold through Bartimaeus's point ofview is seen as the sidekick.The reader finds it much easier to

sympathize with the demon's view asthe writer makes it possible, mostly byusing humor.

There are some weak points in thestory, for instance, its general lack ofdirection. The reader tends to get lost inthe heat of action due to confusingdescriptions during battle. Furthermore,the flow of the story is very predictable;everyone knows who the bad guy isfrom the start with no real 'wrenching'surprises in store. However, all this ismade up by the excellent way theauthor shapes the demon, Bartimaeus'character.

Overall, this is an amazing read withnew and interesting features likeBartimaeus' footnotes about his past lifeand thoughts of the situation on hand. Italso proves that anyone can be a hero,even an irascible djinn Bartimaeus whodoesn't have many 'noble' feelings.

Just Kids14 JustBooks Connect - September 2011

The Amulet of Samarkand

Jonathan StroudAge group: 12-18 yrsPages: 492Doubleday

JustBooks Picks for Young ReadersMmm Cookies! by Robert Munsch

Look, The Moon! by Sandhya Rao

Aunty Mouse by Kunzang Choden

Same And Different by ManjulaPadmanabhan

My Grandfather Aajoba by TarujaParande

The Mystery Of Blue by Muriel Kakani

A Wrinkle In Time by MadeleineL'Engle

Linger by Maggie Stiefvater

Museum Of Thieves by Lian Tanner

Jayanthi Harsha

Thinking of Fyodor Dostoevskyimmediately conjures a sort ofdarkness in the mind, an appealing

darkness that gathers weight from whatone knows of the Russian genius's lifeand takes its sheen from the dramatictides of his books. A darkness like a del-uge. Because reading the writer whommany call the 'father of existentialism' isto step into a vortex of primal emotions,hate and love at their most brutal andnaked.

There are many stories aboutDostoevsky's life and one can conjectureendlessly about his relationship with hisalcoholic father Mikhael—loving or dis-turbed?—and how is it exactly that hefinally died? Did Mikhael, in fact, drownin vodka poured down his throat byenraged serfs? What is more important iswhat remains of him, a legacy that hasbecome something of universal relevanceand value and yes, perhaps his owntroubled and tumultuous life led him tounderstand human follies and failingsbetter. Dostoevsky is known as one ofthe best psychologists in world litera-ture.

His stories and characters are constant-ly revealing of what human beings arecapable of, their deepest loves and dark-est fears, their soul. As Woolf once put it,in Dostoevsky's stories, "Out it tumbles

upon us, hot, scalding, mixed, marvelous,terrible, oppressive-the human soul." Rich

or poor, tramp or crimi-nal, the men and womenin Dostoevsky's booksgrapple with questions ofmorality in surprising, dif-ficult and terrible ways.

In Crime andPunishment, even whileexploring the possibilityof murdering an oldwoman, Raskolnikovjudges the meanness ofhis sister's prospectivehusband and how wrongit is that she should sacri-fice herself for her family.In The Idiot, the epilepticPrince Myshkin becomes asymbol of all that is good,a Christ figure, and hisattacks are symptomaticof the effect that societyhas on the best of men."Man is tormented by nogreater anxiety than to findsomeone quickly to whom he

can hand over that great gift of freedom withwhich the ill-fated creature is born," saysIvan in The Brothers Karamazov, voic-ing what many feel about freedom butcannot admit.

Naturally, because his books explorethe meaning of morality—the question ofhow to be good—they also deal with thespiritual. Reams have been written aboutthe allegorical nature of The BrothersKaramazov in which each brother repre-sents a different attitude to faith, rangingfrom atheism to monasticism.

In contemplating The Idiot,Dostoyevsky wrote in a letter to ANMaikov that he hoped to focus the workaround a question "with which I have beentormented, consciously or unconsciously allmy life-that is, the existence of God". And ifDostoevsky is concerned with our waysof approaching and understanding God,he is no less concerned with the love offellow human beings. Love in all itsforms powers through his pages. Notonly romantic love with all its attendantvile and pleasing faces but also lovebetween male friends or brothers.Intense. Often exuberantly expressed.

One might expect books crammed withsuch weighty concerns to be slow butDostoevsky was a master story-teller, adjinn of the tale-spinning art. Cushionsin place, tea mug in hand, one enters hisworld and within minutes, there is asense of stepping into a universe gone

awry. Dreadful things happen. Peoplefight, curse, drink and gamble. Loves aresealed, lost or set afloat in a matter of afew pages. Epic events happen in thelives of his characters and then they areundone. And yet, one cannot read hisworks at the pure level of the storybecause they are layered with multiplemeanings, allegory, a larger explorationof psyche or society. In fact, some schol-ars have said that his stories cannot beread at the level of story at all. As a layreader, I disagree. To me, it seems thatDostoevsky is convincing at multiplelevels. Within the universe of the novel,he inspires trust. One may not always besure of why a character is behaving in aparticular way but one is willing to goalong with it because of the sheer vitali-ty, the aliveness of the character. One iscompelled to go along with it. It has thethrill of addiction.


Fyodor DostoevskyAnindita Sengupta

IN A NUTSHELL

Born On: November 11, 1821.

Born In: Moscow, Russia.

Educated At: Saint PetersburgInstitute of Military Engineering.

First Book: Poor Folk (1846).

Major Works: Notes fromUnderground (1864), Crime andPunishment (1866), The Gambler(1867), The Idiot (1869), Demons(1872), The Brothers Karamazov(1880).

Day Job: Served in the army; becamea literary celebrity at 24.

Incarcerated on 23 April 1849 forbeing part of liberal intellectual groupthe Petrashevsky Circle; faced a mockexecution and spent six years inprison after which he served in theSiberian regiment. From 1873 to 1881 he published theWriter's Diary, a successful monthlyjournal of short stories, sketches, andarticles on current events.

Married: Maria Dmitrievna Isayeva in1857 who died in 1864; married AnnaGrigorevna Snitkina, in 1867.

Suffered From: Epilepsy and a gam-bling addiction.

Why should a child oranyone else for thatmatter be taught

how to think? Don't we dothat naturally? Sadly, no!

JustBooks, Kalyan Nagar iscurrently conducting. a"thinking skills" program forchildren of the age groups 5-7and 8-13 years based on NLP(Neuro LinguisticProgramming) and MultipleIntelligences organized bySparkling Mindz.

The "thinking skills" pro-gram has three modules,namely Creative and CriticalThinking, Communicationand Interpersonal Skills andDecision Making and Values.

Each module is 15 weeks induration and classes are con-ducted on weekends for 2hours.

The module currently inprogress is Creative andCritical Thinking and will befollowed by Communicationand Interpersonal Skills.

Sparkling Mindz buildsthinking skills in childrenthrough activities, games,experiential learning, reflec-tive thinking and team work.

The program helps expanda child's brain to the fullestcreative capacity and giveshim or her the essential deci-sion making tools to becomea confident thinker and learn-er.


AECS Layout65470141

Bellandur25740710, 42118813

Banashankari 41637052, 9535854732

Frazer Town41644449

HSR Layout22587430, 7259974251

Indira Nagar65831547, 42044157

Jayanagar 5th Block9740894014, 42068676

JP Nagar-Dollar's Colony42228168JP Nagar42106418

Kalyan Nagar42084394, 9986072204

Koramangala40982460

Koramangala 8th Block25702799

Langford Road9845171670

Malleshwaram41280649

Rajarajeshwari Nagar28607751, 9535854732

RMV II Stage23410800

Sahakar Nagar 41713941

Sarjapur Road42129279

Vidyaranyapura23644501, 8095854950Vijaya Bank Layout

41645690Vijaynagar

42117539Whitefield

42053027, 32999406Yelahanka42138080

Hyderabad04030560660

Mysore9742264738

Mumbai - Powai02240158408, 08971512111

Mumbai - Nerul 02227729788, 09004819059

Mumbai - Dombivli02516505544

Pune - Aundh02025896016, 7385022201Pune-Magarpatta City

9561550003Pune-Viman Nagar

9561550002Pune - Wanowarie

02030116811, 7385022202For franchise inquiries contact: [email protected]

Sparkling awayJustBooks Events

Lavanya runs theJustBooks Kalyan Nagarfranchise. A commercegraduate, she worked withMotorola in their HRdepartment before startingher own venture. Apartfrom books and reading,Lavanya loves to travel theworld, conjure up some siz-zling dishes and watchmovies.

Lavanya

Interview with Zafar Anjum

Documents

Transcript of Interview with Zafar Anjum