Reading Desi

There is one section in the bookshop I can never resist from visiting. It has the most attractive books with shiny book covers , peppered with magazine-review quotes and published by the leading book houses...it ultimately results in pulling out that 100/200 bucks and glowing inside , for no reason what-so-ever. You feel unusually , unexplainably enlightened , happy , satisfied and every possible adjective found in the Oxford Thesaurus related to happiness...ofcourse , all this lasts only upto you have completed 20 pages in the book , then you start searching for those refund vouchers.

The books I am talking about are the desi-authored ones , the books which have made it to international awards and New York Times Reviews. Those books , which have an aura of hype and phoney praise around them , ofcourse , inside is the bitter pill. The book is bad , worse , worst.

No , i am not trying to generalise all Indian books into this all-hype-and-no-substance category. There are very good ones too , but they are so rare , that when you visit the Indian section , you are confronted with Anurag Mathurs , Anita Nairs , Chetan Bhagats and Robin Sharmas.I have been a victim of this many times. From Chetan Bhagat to Amitav Ghosh , my book-collection at home possesses all those tried-and-thrusted books , which stare at me accusingly , and i stare back guiltily.Like in the case of Amitav Ghosh's The Hungry Tide. I picked up the book , and my jaw dropped , the cover page has the most attractive cover design i had seen and plus a mention of how this book won the Hutch Crossword Award had me on. I turned the book around and i was greeted with the most flattering comments , "The most endearing book" , "The most unforgettable book..." , "The best book ever written which haunts your mind even after reading"... Plus , the plot of the book has me on...and the rest is history.Anyway , this specie of a book is about the wildlife in Sunderbans explored by an NRI and a businessman , well , who cares? . The writer Amitav Ghosh unfortunately cannot differentiate between a thesis on Sunderban Beliefs and Dolphins and a good , fun book which makes pleasant reading. Don't read this book , unless ofcourse , you want to become a National Geographic researcher in Irrawady Dolphins :).But the most outrageous book i would have read (no , started) is Anita Nair's "Fasting , Feasting" or something like that. Published by Penguin , it is glamourously packed , has a don't-dare-ignore story line (it is about the story of a Muslim and a Hindu...orsomething like that) , but the book is so bad , that i had to rush out to thenearby medical shop for a Crocin tablet. And for that matter , NEVER attempt reading ANY book by this Nair. And if you do , i am not responsible for unsolicited heart-attacks , headaches , illnesses or anything of that sort :)But , on the contrary , one book i liked was Bapsi Sidhwa's Ice-Candy Man (better known as Cracking India).Ofcourse I picked up this book because there was a movie made on this called 1947-Earth , starring Nandita Das and Aamir Khan *sheepish* , but i did enjoy the book. I am not partial to Aamir Khan in this case , afterall , i panned One Night At The Call Centre , even though Abhishek Bachchan is acting in the movie made on this book :)...And thus goes my exploits with Indian books. I have read Anurag Mathur , Eshwar Sundaresan , Jaishree Mishra , Amitav Ghosh , Bapsi Sidhwa , Chetan Bhagat among many. Yeah , most were bad (read - horrific) , but there were some good apples to. Like Arundati Roy...And now i am saddled with a Jaishree Mishra's "Afterwards". Suggested by a friend , i had no choice , but accept it with an aspartame-coated plastic smile. And i will attempt it too. And no eye-brow raisings , if my blog is inactive for a few more week ;)

Creating Controversies and Grabbing Opportunities

The cola controversy is in the fizz again , with reports of more carcinogenic and other harmful substances , and ofcourse the infamous pesticides. More fuel is being added , in the form of a certain Sunita Narain (who silenced the hapless Vikram Chandra in The Big Fight (ndtv) and was (almost) silenced by Barkha Dutt in We The People). Anyway , her points are pretty good and it is worth watching her bash up some certain protesters. Later , more news came in , as the Don pair , Shah Rukh Khan and Priyanka Chopra refused to stop advertising for Pepsi/Coco cola and justified their stance with a whole lot of silly reasons (after all , the water and apples here are contaminated no?) , and...hamara hero , Abhishek Bacchan refused to advertise for colas. Colas lost a consumer in me two years back , and this further strengthens it :))

Anyway , Amul is using this controversy to the maximum extent. Ads. , now to reinforce the concept of drinking buttermilk over soft drinks (Amul Masti Dahi) have started on , and are going on pretty fine. And ofcourse , the Amul posters...














Saw these on Kanakpura Road yesterday , and now , on the Amul website . Well , i never was a great fan of Amul Masti Dahi , drank it only when nothing else was available , but after this , perhaps i would attempt at it again. Not entirely for the dahi ( i never liked buttermilk very much) , but for the innovative marketing strategy. And ofcourse , since my choices are quite limited today.

Updated...

Updated to Google Blogger Beta , and now , a new look.
Still undecided whether i like it or not
Anyway , this will do for some days atleast.
Any ideas?

Of faith and festivals

Today is Independence Day , everyone knows that.
Today is also Gokulashtami/Janmashtami , some people know that.
The rest are debating whether it is today or tomorrow.
Those who believe that it is today , are celebrating it today.
And those who believe it is tomorrow , celebrate it tomorrow.
Much Ado About Nothing.
PS - If you are highly religious , stop reading here...
But , that statement does not mean that i am an atheist , as most geniuses would assume.
Anyway , we are celebrating it today.
The same old stuff , sweets and snacks dripping in oil , fried.
The same old pooja
The same old everything...
And the meaning is lost
Does it really matter , if the festival is today or tomorrow?
Or does the number of items made really matter?
It is all a question of faith , you have the faith , good , you don't , good.
I have nothing against these festivals and i like to think myself as a chammatthu hindu ponnu , so i won't complain.
But , i would celebrate these festivals for a different reason , i will celebrate it , for that invisible faith and not for the pooja , sweets...
Again , i am not an atheist , you are mistaken , if you think i am one
But it is true that i value my country more than my religion.
And that faith , is the love for my country and my country's customs
I don't care much for the Hindu , Christian , Muslim , Sikh label , but i do very much for the 'Indian' label.
And i will definitely put my religion (and caste for that matter) as 'Indian'.