Vignettes

Have you been in a human traffic jam? You have heard of a motor vehicle traffic jam where the cars, buses, lorries and other hoggers of road space pile up and stick their fingers in the air to display their inner urges.

It happened to me today. I was at Kurla from where I change to Andheri to the place of work. While climbing the steps to the bridge that would lead me to the west of Kurla, there was this absolute mass of people, unmoving, unbudging, as if the whole thick mass of flesh was one entity. I waited. Then again the whole mass moved a step, just as it does in a traffic jam. Then it stopped. Then it went ahead a step and then it stopped.

Now, about the moral of the story, and a little sermonizing which I am fond of. After all, when you are my age (which you will be) you always compare these things with what it used to be. Young people who are living in the present adapt immediately, but older people question everything that has the label of newness on it. Overpopulation, over-stressed resources, bugbears of modern living: anxiety levels were high, a man was touching me patronizingly on the shoulder, “Take your hands off,” I almost shouted.

My first blog from Word 2007

This is my first blog from Word 2007.

Kiran Desai winning the Booker is good news. Here's the New York Times article that praises her cross cultural saga. I have no issues with that. But what had rankled me once was her mother Anita Desai deriding the lot of struggling Indian authors.

True, we Indian authors aren't up to the mark, we aren't that publishing savvy, our manuscripts return with editorial comments like "what crap" scrawled in the margin, and editors write, "If it was somebody I could have helped, I would definitely meet," and crap like that to struggling authors.

To published authors who hold their noses in the air and look down upon struggling authors, I have one thing to say: "There is a lot of talent out there, but it's only that in the daily struggle of making a living we don't have the time to focus on our writing. So we would be content, for the time being, shall we say, with writer's networks like Caferati and Shakespeare & Co.

Rushdie Sells His Personal Papers

Here's a story for all ye committed, die-hard, whatever, Rushdie fans. Brenda Goodman reports in this article that Rushdie has sold his personal papers to Emory University, Atlanta. Now author's papers command great value since his journals, notes, manuscripts, handwritten notes, and even signatures [no matter if they are on bills or cleaning tissue] carry great value. I have preserved two letters written me by two wonderful women writers Arundhati Roy and Shobha De (; guess they would be of great literary value when I and the said writers grow old;).

"Mr. Rushdie, 59, will also join the faculty in 2007 for five years as a distinguished writer in residence. Stephen C. Enniss, director of Emory’s Manuscript, Archives and Rare Books Library, said the collection contained original manuscripts of all of Mr. Rushdie’s books, including two early, unpublished novels, as well as journals that he said Mr. Rushdie kept “compulsively” for 36 years. The journals he has written since 1989 — when the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini of Iran issued a fatwa authorizing his murder because of the irreverent portrayal of Muhammad in his book “The Satanic Verses” — will remain closed “for a period,” Mr. Enniss said; Mr. Rushdie plans to use the material to write an autobiography. “I would like to have first go at this story; after that, everyone else can do as they please with the material,” Mr. Rushdie confirmed in an e-mail message. "

Technorati tags: Salman Rushdie, Arundhati Roy, Shobha De, Emory University, Atlanta, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, Iran

What Are Colleges for If Not for Education?

Before I knew it, I was arguing with my son.

"You know something, it's not good to cut classes, saying you have assignments and homework, which you should have finished when you were channel surfing. What do I pay your fee for? I pay almost sixty grand every year to your college. If you cut classes, that's going to be a waste. Besides this I pay tuition fees, pocket money, bike maintenance, clothes, not to talk of surround sound systems," I shout.

My ire is legitimate. This year the engineering college where my son is studying hiked fee from forty-six grand to fifty-six, without even a "by your leave."

"But they don't teach anything in college, then why should I attend it? My coaching class teaches better than them," the cool dude says.

"Then what are the fancy fee for? For chandeliers and leather sofas (there are quite a lot of them in the college he studies)?" I rave and I rant.

Writes Gurcharan Das in this article  in Newsweek about why so many Indians are succeeding in the global-knowledge economy [y'know call centers, and all], "Government-run schools are a mess: a national study by Harvard University faculty found that on any given day, one out of four teachers in state-run primary schools is absent, and of those present half are not teaching." I guess the same situation prevails in engineering colleges. I am told by a teacher friend that because teachers aren't available for scheduled caste teachers' vacancies [in India jobs are pre-reserved for members of certain marginalized and downtrodden people, segregated according to their traditional castes], colleges are employing teachers on a casual basis, paying them a fixed fee per lecture.

Then where is all the money the government spends on education going? Corruption exists on a level one, at least, you and I, can't imagine in these institutions. Would you believe that permissions for engineering and medical colleges are the preserve of a few politically-anointed individuals? And that money is the consideration for admission to these colleges, not merit?

Technorati tags: Engineering colleges, India, Gurcharan Das, Harvard University

Frankfurt Book Fair on a Dull Note....

Seems the Frankfurt Book Fair where India is the partner country has been subdued according to this report by Herbert R. Lottman. Reason? Terrorist threat, still persistent, after security has, well, I will use the cliche after all, been beefed up.

"Security was reinforced--"massively," as fair management informed visitors," reads the article, though what threats terrorists can pose to a book fair, foxes me. But, wait a minute, books are about ideologies and, yes, in that case. Wasn't Rushdie given a fatwa because of a book?

One wonders why Frankfurt is such a big draw for exhibitions and fairs? The reason is that after the Second World War, Germany was devastated and they needed something to rebuild their economy. So they positioned themselves as the exhibition capital of the world, a position that Singapore occupies as the exhibition capital of Asia.

Sad to say, a similar effort was made by an exhibition company to project Bombay as the trade fair center of Asia, which failed due to various apathies that need not be mentioned here.

Technorati tags: Frankfurt Book Fair, India, Security, exhibitions

Why Writing is Harder than Programming (Paul Graham)

To those who think writing, is, or rather, has always been easy, here's an article that will shake you out of that misconception, or, mindset, - Why Writing is Harder than Programming (Paul Graham).

That said, I was approached recently to write the documentation of a software that was already into implementation. I asked, "Why didn't you have a writer doing the documentation as you were writing the code?" Okay, okay, coding is tough, coding is specialized, coding is nerve wracking. But, gentlemen, writing, too, is all this! So, you assumed you could save some money. Great, now, suffer.

Heard the Malayalam saying, "Utharathile edukkukayum venam, kashathile pokukayum aruthu," meaning wanting to take what is kept on the lintel while not losing what is in the armpit.

Now when it come to software projects why are there twenty-five programmers and only one writer, if at all? People, whatever the misconceptions you are harboring, writing isn't easy. Ask Paul Graham.

We are like this only! Pushing, pushing, chalo, chalo!

The man at the back of me says, "Chalo, Chalo, Chalo," while prodding me gently somewhere in my dorsal region, around where my kidneys would normally be. Normally, because now I am tightly wedged between the man at the back, whose face I can't see, and a man with sweaty armpits in front.

"What's the hurry," I say, "the train ends its journey here, in CBD Belapur. It will be here for another ten minutes."

"But I won't get a window seat, na? I want that particular seat. My friends from other stations look at that seat. Besides, I have to read the holy book, and throw flowers into the sea when it crosses the Vashi Bridge."

So I let the man pass ahead of me. Minutes later, he and I are getting down at Kurla station and he is again prodding me, this time around the solar plexus, and, "Chalo, chalo, chalo," he says.

I have seen this in stations, municipal offices, banks, in fact, anywhere a bunch of Indian could possibly be, even airports. No sooner the aircraft comes to a stop than there is pushing and jostling, swearing, and "Chalo, Chalo, Chalo," this time a bit more subtly considering that "firangi [foreign] madams and hawai sundaris [flying beauties]" are around.

But go anywhere, we will be pushing, dhakafying, shoving, cursing, women molesting, because, "We are like this only, no?"
Tags: Push, shove, chalo, Vashi, Kurla, CBD Belapur

Mark Foley, What Folly? Sharukh on CNN-IBN!

Well, well, read this article about Republican congressman Mark Foley who is in the thick of allegations that he exchanged sexually explicit emails with house pages (a page is a a boy who is employed to run errands for congressmen, and are usually teenagers).

"Foley, a well-liked Florida Republican who cochaired the House Caucus on Missing and Exploited Children, resigned abruptly Friday afternoon after ABC News confronted him with graphic, sexual computer messages between Foley and a page. The e-mails refer explicitly to sexual acts, with Foley expressing his desire to remove the teen's shorts."

What's so unlikely and shocking is that Foley is a person responsible for "Missing and Exploited Children," and in this case of the fence eating the crop, or the treasurer appropriating the treasure, was expected to be responsible in his conduct. Makes one wonder why people in children-related positions aren't screened before being appointed. From this story it seems that even an Indian NGO was involved in trafficking children, to be then put up for adoption.

Saw today the Sharukh Khan interview on CNN-IBN. Must say he is a very articulate person with a prosaic and, well, intelligent bent of mind. Do take a look.
Tags: Sharukh Khan, CNN-IBN, Foley, Republican, Indian NGO, Mark Foley

The Future of Books As We Know It. Sony Reader is here.

Got this from friend, fellow blogger and crime writer John Baker's blog.

The Sony Reader is the future of books as we know it. What's more is that it can hold, not one, but 80 electronic books or hundreds more with a removable memory card. The manufacturer claims that it is easy to carry as a slim paper back. So want to read Salman Rushdie, Arundhati Roy, Vikram Seth, and Vikram Chandra on your vacation to Goa? Go straight ahead. Download these ebooks from ereader to your Sony Reader and then, as you slowly recline under your beach umbrella, scroll down (don't have to fold the book front to back) and enjoy!
Tags: John Baker, Sony Reader, Vikram Seth, Vikram Chandra, Goa