SUKI ONLINE / 2014 / 02

26th February 2014
Aside from not updating the posts at this blog, I haven't been updating my book list either. *sigh* Here are two links that I missed posting:
The paperback edition of THREE VIRGINS is available in the US. In India, it's available in hardback online from the publisher, ZUBAAN. Flipkart features a link to the paperback edition, which is not, so far as I know, available in India.

It's had some very positive reviews. Here are three:
Namita Gokhale in OUTLOOK
Mitali Saran in TEHELKA
Akhila Krishnamurthy in the HINDU

My latest illustrated book is WE ARE DIFFERENT, available from Flipkart India and of course from its publisher, TULIKA BOOKS.

I have also recently begun a fortnightly column with The Hindu's BUSINESS LINE in their Saturday magazine, BLink. It's an interesting and well designed magazine, well worth a visit.

Here's a link to the first piece: ELSEWHERE, USA. I'll post more links as I get them.

And finally, there's been a lot of activity on the Indian indigenous comic front.

Arul Mani in the LADIES FINGER! posted a very friendly review of Penguin India's DOUBLETALK many months ago and I was too sluggish to post a link here. Thanks to Amruta Patil, who very kindly sent me the link (realising that I would never otherwise see it or find it on my own)

At the Bangalore Lit Fest that I attended in January, I was the Mediator on a panel about graphic novels -- I really would like to write about this at greater length, so I won't say more right now. In a related development, SUKI made a guest appearance in PULP QUARTERLY, a lively new publication focusing on graphic stories and story tellers.

THREE VIRGINS and other news

So! Here it is, THREE VIRGINS and other stories my latest published collection. Five new, five old. Hard Back edition, published by Zubaan, currently available in India (but eventually in the US too).

The link will take you to Zubaan's site. I will post links to Flipkart and Amazon when I get them.

There's SO much other news ... I didn't realize that it's been two months since the last time I posted anything here, but looking back I can't believe that it's ONLY been two months.

I finished writing the novel (sequel to ESCAPE) that I've been working on for the past four years; visited Randolph a couple of times; flew back to New Delhi on the 14th of June; left for Madras on the 15th; celebrated my 60th birthday last week; finalized the half the pages for my next Tulika book and ... in two days I will return to Delhi.

Up ahead, towards the end of July, I'll go to Calcutta to work on a couple of new short performance pieces for Seagull and to make a brief presentation of my life as an author-artist at their School of Publishing. In September, I've been invited to the (theatre) Festival Tramedautore in Milan, Italy. This year, they are featuring South Asian works. Two of my plays will be presented, I think, but details and dates are being worked out. I won't post links until I am sure of what and when.

I am also, even as I write this post, completing the final draft of the novel. When I say I "finished" it (two weeks ago, literally on the morning I was due to leave Newport) I mean that I brought the story to a close. I've still got to tweak, polish, nip and tuck. And deliver. But it's been such an enormous struggle just to reel the story in, that as I see it, what remains is small stuff by comparison. Fingers crossed. I've been sharing the name with a couple of friends, but I'll hold back from revealing it here until I've sent it off.

In the midst of all this, lots of very intense conversations, personal events, journeys of the mind, of the stomach, of the nose, eyes and ears. The primary New Thing in my life is the Samsung Galaxy Grand that I received as my gift from my family in Madras, for surviving sixty years of existence. I will admit to being charmed by it. I used to be an extreme gadgetophile but I stopped, many years ago, because of novelty-fatigue. Nowadays, I mostly just turn my head the other way when some new item grazes the horizon of reality. But many of them really are very beautiful, quasi-magical objects so when I have one all to myself, I fall willingly under its spell.

Sixty! Wow. I can't quite believe it.