More Kerala Sketches

Dancer
Dancer
Musician
Dancers
Here are a few more sketches made on my Kerala cruise (and after the cruise, in Cochin).

I'm about to leave on a two-week trip so I can't be more specific right this minute-- but if you read OUTLOOK TRAVELLER's March issue, you'll get a little more background detail!

VERVE Review

Review
My editor sent me this. Nice! The image is clickable, in case you want to read it.

HOAX!

FauxWonderTree

This just came in, purporting to be an amazing tree "somewhere in India" (no, wait, Andhra Pradesh was specifically named). I'm as gullible as anyone else and have fallen for any number of hokey-pokey e-mail scares so maybe it's Grizzled Experience that led me to doubt this tree could possibly be Indian. In the further photographs of the tree, details of astonishingly well-carved animals can be seen, amongst them a number of distinctly non-Indian beasties, such as a hippopotamus. SO I used my now-favourite web site Tin Eye, (ref the post further down on this page, in which I reverse-searched design objects) and it led me to Break The Chain, a web-site dedicated to busting e-mail hoaxes. I think I've GOT to enter both of these sterling sites to my list at right!!

MOMENTS LATER: It is done. I have also removed a couple of sites, notably the LitterBoxWatch coz it was no longer active (or wasn't, the last time I clicked on it).

Kerala Trip

Musician


Last Friday I left on a brief and highly pleasurable junket to Kerala, on board the Oberoi's Backwater Cruiser, M.V. Vrinda. I'm not posting any links just now because I will of course be writing about the trip and will post links to my piece in OUTLOOK TRAVELLER when it appears. Most likely one month from now.

This little sketch is of one of the five musicians who entertained us -- he's playing a "moorsang" (also "murchang", "morsang") or Indian Jewish Harp -- and the reason I have a sketch rather than a photograph is that I decided I'd try making drawings on this trip. I hate fiddling with cameras and for that reason rarely get any pictures at all. I don't often manage to do any sketching either because I usually feel too self-conscious. Perhaps I succeeded this time because I used a little notebook and ballpoint pen? Nothing very noticeable or professional. And besides everyone else was watching the performers!

The three-day/four night trip was tremendous fun but I had an unexpected bonus: the JetAirways flight from Delhi was delayed due to fog, so I missed my connection to Cochin, in Bombay. Jet very kindly offered to accommodate me for the night -- even though the fare on which I was travelling did NOT cover me for such contingencies -- but the Oberoi stepped in and had me stay at the Trident (yes, the very one ...) at Nariman Point. It was for just ten hours -- my flight was at 5.30 a.m. -- but the room they gave me was fabulous, all glass and quiet elegance, plus a personal butler (in case I needed help shutting my jaw, which must have hit the floor with a loud thump when I walked in the room). I can remember spending a couple of nights in the Business Centre of the old Oberoi many years ago. It was fancy enough, but nothing like THIS. My favourite detail? The basin in the glass-walled bathroom was recessed into the glass counter top (not perched upon it, i.e.), so smoothly and neatly that it was like washing my hands INSIDE a soap bubble. Nice.

Weightloss

Today, for the first time in 15 years, I weigh under 70 Kg! 69Kg, that is, so not exactly record-breaking stuff and I'm still a certifiable blimp -- just a 69 Kg one rather than 76 or 78Kg one. That's what I was last June, when I began to think it was time to take action.

It's on account of a very gradual programme of re-orientating desires, not anything deserving the name of "diet". This blog doesn't usually go in the direction of personal data, but I thought I could afford a little celebration today. And maybe share a tip? I believe the entire turnaround occurred when I identified the culprit in my daily in-take -- in my case it was/is bread. It's not merely that I ADORE bread/toast and all the variations on that theme(i.e., toast-butter; toast-cheese; toast-apricot jam; you get the idea), but that the chef of this house makes bread three times a week -- and it's really yummy.

My main point though isn't that would-be dieters need to cut bread out of their diets! But that there is perhaps one item more than any other which contributes to the unwanted poundage. Somehow, one has to face one's desire square in the eye and with quiet determination ... undo it. I'm not the type who can endure much in the way of self-denial so I allow myself very many occasions for weakness, but always with the underlying theme that each occasion is to be considered a special one. A toast to toast, so to speak.

And the not-so-main point? Just this: don't give up. Those of you who have read GETTING THERE (see column at right) will know that this quest has been in progress a VLT (= Very Long Time) -- forever, pretty much -- except for the brief period described in the book, during which I followed all the instructions at that doctor's clinic and did indeed experience a very satisfying loss, resulting in the realization that it was possible (of course, I put it straight back on, a month later)(you have to read the book to get the whole story, which is complicated and involves Dutchmen and enlightenment)(but of course you CAN'T read it coz it's not available in bookstores)(not my fault). It seems to me, for very many dieters, it's an actual barrier -- I mean, it really is difficult to believe that weight CAN be lost, which causes many would-be dieters to give up.

And yesyesyes -- it's utterly boring and perhaps, these days, old-fashioned and unPC to even discuss weightloss as if it were something desirable. I don't care. I'm 69 Kg this morning and I wanted to SHARE!

GADGETIZMOS!

Well, I went a little berserk with that TIN EYE site! Found all sorts of thrilling things and places -- finally including a link to a mother-lode of images -- click here if you want to waste a lot of time (but, as I discovered, it doesn't exactly list sources of the objects. For that you've still got to dig -- and I've been digging). Meanwhile, a couple more images from amongst those that I DID trace back to a source:

http://www.d-vision.co.il/151927&set=1


http://www.notonthehighstreet.com/mocha/product/127_dunk_mug

http://www.pregnancystore.com/zaky.htm



http://www.d-vision.co.il/151957&set=0

http://www.d-vision.co.il/152001&set=0

Design Thrills

http://www.tonioderoover.nl/blog/?p=12


http://freshome.com/2008/04/29/robotic-arm-faucet-design-kohlers-karbon-faucet/


http://www.kashyahildebrand.org/zurich/exhibitions_korean08/lila007.html
http://www.productdose.com/article.php?article_id=7785
http://freshome.com/2008/06/23/washbasin-shaped-as-a-fossil-ammonite/

http://gadgetheat.com/2008/05/30/surfs-up-dude-bring-your-keyboard/

A friend sent me these images and many more besides; the reason I've not uploaded all of them is that except for the Regatta Daybed from the "LIFE SHOP COLLECTION", I could not find any information with which I could launch a source-search. Does anyone know how one would begin to search for an image source if one has ONLY the image and no identifiers? I really DON'T like displaying images without source information (and wish that everyone would include links when they post images in e-mail msgs). Anyway, the two other pix I've featured here were objects that I especially loved. Even though that wash basin would probably be a house-proud person's nightmare ...

UPDATE: Yesssss! I have now added source information to the pix that are already here. Also updated the name of the wash basin which I incorrectly identified as a "nautilus". It is, of course, based on an ammonite. Now I will run off and spend the rest of the day searching up the other pix ... What TOTAL FUN!! Here's the site address for reverse-searching pix: TIN EYE.

UPDATE of UPDATE More images now.

Happy Inauguration Day!

Chrysanthemum This is one of the paintings from last year that gave me a bit of hope in myself (translation: after having produced one ghastlyuglygristly painting after the other, when I got to this one I was suprised to find that I actually liked it when it was done).

I'm posting it here as an Obama-Inauguration Day offering -- we spent most of the day from 3 pm (New Delhi time) onwards with the TV switched on near-constantly. We didn't actually sit down to watch till evening, but it was still quite a long session. Astounding, inspirational and also sobering. He makes it clear that there's a long hard slog ahead of him and his presidency is going to be mostly grim and care-worn -- which is why it's easy to believe him. He seems to be the only point of sanity in the lunatic asylum that is this planet. But I feel more sympathy for him than I've ever bothered to feel for any other head of state. May he live long and prosper, may his presidency be a great and hallowed one.

... and a peek at ART CONNECT

You won't be able to see the whole article that appeared in the India Foundation for the Arts magazine (Art Connect) but if you click the link and then click again on the article by me, you'll be able to see another of the prints to which I added a few lines of monologue -- like with the "Magnolia" lioness print of a couple of posts ago. You have to subscribe to read the whole article (and of course any of the others that have been posted online).

On Being Disappointing

This painting is what I did over the New Year -- I have been dithering about posting it here -- it's so very new -- but then again, I'm pleased with it and want to show it off. All of last year (it can now be revealed) I struggled with paintings. Each one was worse than the one before -- and believe me, they were BAD. It was quite funny. I would start out feeling hopeful and expectant, slash away for a couple of days and then, as I came to the end, begin to realize that once again I had pulled out a dud.


I don't usually paint in the abstract. So it's been a bit odd to go on and on doing stuff that I didn't especially like. But I'm happy with this painting and about six others which now form a set of sorts. They don't all look the same, but there's a similarity of mood. They've all been the same size -- this one is 30" x 40" -- and shape except for a couple of square ones. I would offer to post them up here but I've also just discovered that I have an active Flickr account -- my name there is Magnolia Lotus -- and have finally begun to set up a viewing site for my art work. It seems pointless to post to two places, so that's where the new ones will be too, when I get around to it. For the time being, it's only accessible to "friends" -- but if anyone here wants to visit, just post a message telling me to what address you'd like an invite sent.

And so to reviews! They continue to be largely negative -- I think it's clear now that I have written a book that the critics have felt generally underwhelmed by. I can't post links to most of the articles because I didn't catch them in time to find online links. I'm posting JPEGs of three of them, but there's a page-size in Biblio too that's interesting for the range of disappointments I caused the reviewer (I scanned it but it hasn't reproduced well, so posting it'll have to wait till I fire up the scanner again). A friend who sometimes visits this blog said she thought it was odd that I chose to include negative reviews up here but ... it's not as if I have many choices! They've been mostly bad. Not extremely so -- the Biblio reviewer for instance suggests it's worth a read, despite not being feminist or techno-savvy enough and a little too interested in pornography -- but certainly enough to cause the fur on my back to ripple with that especial thrill that comes from knowing Someone Out There Dislikes Me. Or at least, Dislikes My Work.

So ... why is it I'm not collapsing in anguish, calling up the editors of review pages and writing angry letters to the press about being mistreated (as, I believe, some authors do)? I truly don't feel anguish about the reviews. (I am smiling as I write this -- maybe that IS one of my leading flaws?) It's certainly nice to read a positive review but it's the nasty ones that I return to again and again, to feel if they still sting, if there was really that nasty word in there, if someone has yet again compared my book to someone or something that I think is fit only for the sewer. After all: positive reviews tell the author what she/he already knows -- but the negatives show me what I can't/won't see on my own, and what no friends or editors can tell me, because they either don't want to hurt me or don't see it themselves.

It fascinates me to see that what one critic dislikes most is the only thing another critic liked. I am left with the sense that the majority of those who didn't like the book wanted to find something in it -- meaning, they EXPECTED something of it -- which it didn't provide. For instance, there is an expectation (I think) that the book might offer some type of feminist message -- but of course it doesn't, since that's certainly not what I would have expected it to do. Biblio liked the internal dialogue that Meiji has with herself (though I worried they would appear idiotically childish); Man's World liked the General's radio interviews; Outlook thought the book was child-pornography; The Telegraph (no link, though I could, I suppose, post the whole text here. Maybe next time) found the whole book childISH. I liked Madhu Jain's piece in Mail Today because I think it was clear and balanced. And two reviewers picked up on the "Boojum" reference in the dedication (-- both got it slightly wrong! The final line of The Hunting of the Snark reads "... for the Snark was a Boojum, you see." -- and as it happens, the Boojum in my dedication is not a Snark at all, but a little girl, currently approaching her fourth birthday)

I could go on like this -- but I think I've probably made my point? I do enjoy reading my critics' criticisms. I don't take them lightly, I don't dismiss them and I don't look away from what they say. They give me a much clearer idea than anything else can or would of what my writing conveys, even though in their case it causes disappointment and unease. Grist for my mill. When I write a sequel -- because, yes, now I'm fairly sure I will -- it'll be with the knowledge that there are fangs and claws out there waiting to tear the next book apart, and that empowers me in a way, pumps adrenalin into my system. Yum! Onward.

Helloooo 2009!

This image of one of my etchings, along with its text, appears in the current issue of Art Connect, the India Foundation for the Arts' very attractive bi-annual magazine.

I wrote the text for a feature about my prints, but the idea of giving some of my prints a "voice" came from the editor of the magazine, novelist and poet Anjum Hasan. I don't think it's possible to link to the magazine, which is a SHAME, coz I really enjoyed putting together the texts. You'll just have to buy or order a copy of the magazine by mail!

And the lioness? Well, she's here to wish all visitors to this blog an interesting and unusual year. May your cushions be colourful, your claws sharp, your carpets comfortable and your afternoons long and plentiful.

Scenes From A Year

On TV two days ago, one of the news channels referred to 2008 as "The Year Best Forgotten" (or some such formulation). Well ... I don't go for that approach. It's hardly the fault of the year.

For me it was a much more sociable year than most: the Kala Ghoda Festival in Bombay early in the year, Madras twice, Finland, Boston, Rhode Island and Sayre, PA in the summer, Bombay again for the Crossword Awards, back to the US for a spectacular fall in Vermont, more Sayre and Boston, a final week in New York, then Kathmandu for the Cartoon Congress organized by Himal Southasia, then in December back to Madras for my Mother's 90th, to Bangalore and then once more to Bombay for my cousin Shashi's son's wedding -- and in the midst of all this, I was able to do two new lithographs and publish a novel! And several paintings in acrylic too, though most of them fall into the category I like to call "Not-Ready-To-Be-Seen-By-Anyone-Coz-They-Are-So-Hideous".

So anyway, from the mass of available photographs I culled a few to share here -- I think my favourite is the one called WINDOW BLIND -- it's from my niece's charming apartment in Boston, and I've been wanting to take a picture of it for ages. The pair of water pipes from Bombay are what can be seen from my nephew's equally charming 10th floor apartment in Bandra -- I found the view in all directions quite spectacular, like ready-made sets for several different kinds of art movies.

The family photograph is of my two sisters and my parents taken in the time Before Me. As part of Mum's birthday celebration, we created a montage of photographs from her life, accompanied by texts written by us about the houses in which we lived, for visitors to read when they came to the house to wish her. This was just one amongst many beautiful photographs. It has the quality that old photographs often have, of being graceful and well-composed, while involving very little artifice.

The gorgeous bouquet is what my friends Ranvir and Nandi Shah sent to my mother for her 90th. The glowing tree is of course from Vermont, where the colours were so spectacular this year that even local residents had to admit they were awestruck.
The hand with the ring is my hand, and the ring is just one of the outstanding pieces of jewellery-cum-art designed by Saara Hopea, wife of our dearly beloved friend Oppi Untract, also a designer, artist and superlative collector, who died this year -- but by a rare piece of good luck, only after we'd had a chance to enjoy his legendary hospitality at his home in Finland. Oppi gave me that ring as a keepsake.

And the peak ... well, it lives in Nepal!

WindowBlind

Bouquet

FamilyPhoto(pre-Moi)

SaaraHopeaRing

VermontFall

Nepal

CONJOINED TWINS

I sent this cartoon to the Letters page of a news magazine about ten days ago but it's not appeared yet so I'm guessing it won't. Ever since the war-talk began, bare moments after the terror-attack on Bombay ended, this image has been pushing its way forward.

I lived in Pakistan as a child, for three years. At the end of that time, the single startling revelation I had when we returned to India (by train) was that there was virtually no difference between the two countries.

SHORT STORY ISSUE

Here's a link to TEHELKA's year end SHORT STORY ISSUE -- I think this is their inaugural edition, but they hope to make it an annual feature. I have a story called FEAST in the issue. Go read! I think I was grinning all the way through writing it, about two months ago. But the whole issue looks inviting -- you'll see thumbnails of the illustrations to each story when you click on the first link and they all seem ripe with promise.

Also: I've changed the font size -- anyone noticed?? -- because one potential reader complained that he (I mistakenly assumed the "she") found it too tiny to read. It now looks all-in-bold for me and there's no in-between option (yes, yes, I can go to the HTML view and change the percentages with each post but ... I'm not going to, coz I'm lazy). However, I'll leave it like this for a while. Or maybe forever. Whichever ends first.

As for the picture ... a blast from the past! Sent to me by SASHI PAZHOOR, it's a clipping he made of a published interview with me, in the late '80s. I cannot remember ever looking as glossy-pages-glamourous this, having always thought of myself as the family hunchback! It's certainly a reminder that good looks are entirely a function of youth

LINK to MyBangalore interview

... and, as further evidence of my brief but enjoyable visit to Bangalore/Bengaluru
here's a link to the MyBangalore piece by Sunanda Pati.

BOMBAY READING

ESCAPE cover

Last reading, this time in BOMBAY.

Here are the details:

AT: CROSSWORD, Kemps Corner, Mumbai.
ON: Thursday, 18th December 2008
AT: 7.00 pm.

Author and journalist AMIT VARMA will be in conversation with me at the event.


And here's one of the several pieces that appeared recently -- this one has a photograph taken by my sister G, at my prompting, and is a rare example of a picture of me in which I look almost human. It appeared in the New Indian Express and was an interview by Asha Menon. In the newspaper, the feature appears as a very generous spread across the middle page of the magazine section and the photograph is hard-to-miss huge. Several friends and rellies called to say they saw it, from as far afield as Kerala!
AmitVarma & Me at Crossword Books, Kemps Corner, Bombay

FRIDAY, 19th morning, post event
And ... a merry time was had by all! Or so I felt. Despite monstah traffic, high-spirited shoppers at the bookstore and a competing launch hosted by Zubaan elsewhere in the city, the event went very well indeed. Amit Varma of INDIA UNCUT made a suave and well-prepared introducer/discussionist and the audience -- composed mostly of friends and one relative -- were most cooperative, patient (esp about the noise in the store) and attentive.

Jerry Pinto, author, journalist and all-time winner of the Mr Outrageous Award, excelled himself at asking the kinds of questions that other journalists do not even whisper quietly to themselves, alone in a cloakroom("How do the men in your book -- living in a land without women -- get off?").

CROSSWORD provided an excellent space (despite the howls issuing from their coffeeshop MOSHE, on the mezzanine level)(Kiran Nagarkar, friend and author, in an e-message from Berlin, warned me about Moshe, saying that it was beyond deafening HOWEVER I had not realized at the time that this was the name of a restaurant. So I imagined he meant there was a floor-manager who was routinely out of control and screamed continuously from an upper floor, during book readings!)and their compere Algan da Costa -- whose name I have almost certainly misspelt -- was not merely good at his job but managed to absorb the entire book with one glance at the back-cover blurb, enough to ask good questions too!

And after the event eight of us strolled down towards Chowpatty, to SOAM, a restaurant serving Gujarati food for dinner. To my amazement, we were met there by the superbly omniscient SRIRAM (God Emperor of the Crossword chain of books, but no longer part of the concern) who had been sworn to attend the Zubaan event many weeks ago and therefore could not come to mine, found this wonderful method of making up. The reason I was amazed was that our team had NOT decided in advance where we'd go for dinner, so it was truly astonishing to find him not only waiting there, but thoughtful enough to have booked a table for the party, in advance. And at the end of the meal, while the rest of us were tugging out our wallets and counting out change, he had quietly settled the bill.

This was the last of the launches, and I can now look back and say that they've all been good fun, and I had the good fortune of recruiting two excellent author-friends to officiate as introducers. Now to sit back and luxuriate in the aftermath of What To Do Next!

BANGALORE READING & MY MUM'S 90th BIRTHDAY

SO much has been happening in the past three days, I feel as if I've been white-water rafting -- except that instead of water and rivers, I was in or on a river of people and events!

I don't have time here and now for anything more than just a quick gasp or two: on Friday morning, I left for Bangalore on the Shatabdi Express, from Madras Central -- got there at 11 a.m. and after a couple of minor adventures involving getting lost en route to the Tata Guest House and then again from the Guest House to M.G. Road, met Anjum Hasan and Zac O'Yeah for lunch at Koshy's. The reading (for which I'd gone to Bangalore) was at Landmark, at The Forum (Koramangala -- sp? Not sure) -- where the highlights, for me were (a) Anjum Hasan's extremely warm and well-prepared introductory speech about my book and me, followed by the conversation the two of us had together, on stage, immediately after I'd finished reading a chapter from the book. Everything about the interaction was good -- it was lively, interesting (for me! And I hope for the audience too) and informative -- and at the end of it I felt the whole evening had been worth the effort of going to Bangalore. (b) I was delighted that the author Usha K.R. -- her novel A GIRL AND A RIVER won this year's Crossword Award -- and her husband were present. Also, Sumana, who reviewed my book in the Hindu ... (pls see previous post)

There was much more to be delighted with in Bangalore but I must move on very quickly to the next day -- i.e., Saturday, when I returned to Madras, and immediately plunged into the maelstrom of a family celebration in progress. Actually, it wasn't much of maelstrom at all, because we were all so superbly well-prepared. My sister Su and her daughter Divya had flown in from the US on Friday morning, my niece Meenakshi, and her daughter and husband, Maitreyi and Ranjit had travelled by train from Madurai on Saturday, my nephew Vikram had arrived earlier in the week from Bombay -- and on Saturday, between all of us, including of Geeta and Girish and the team of domestic ladies, we pulled together a wonderful celebration to commemmorate my mother's NINETY YEARS of life-on-earth, today, Sunday the 14th. Actually, her birthday is on the 16th, but in view of logistical realities, we held it on a Sunday, so that her friends and other family would not have to struggle through weekday traffic to reach our house for a tea-time feast (i.e., between 4 pm and 7 pm).

I will get around to posting photographs and I HOPE I will manage to post longer descriptions of both events. But for now, this will have to do. Oh! And several more news items about the book have appeared but I absolutely CANNOT chase up the links just now. A particularly nice one, however, appeared in today's New Indian Express Sunday magazine section, by Asha Menon.

*REVIEW*REVIEW*REVIEW*

How nice, and what relief, a GOOD review -- not merely because it is positive towards the book, but because it allows me to feel that a dialogue has been established: A Humanist Plea, by Sumana Mukherjee, appearing in THE HINDU's excellent monthly supplement, The Literary Review. Given the extremely stepmotherly treatment meted out to literary pages in other leading newspapers, THE HINDU is to be warmly commended for its generous allotment of space.

In the same issue, but in the magazine section Ranvir Shah's interview with me appears with the title Streams of Subversiveness -- he very modestly omits to mention that the book launch to which he refers took place courtesy HIS foundation, Prakriti, at The Park's discotheque, PASHA (ref. my post of a few days ago). He asked the kind of questions that were fun to answer. There's also a photograph of me which makes me look like a friendly gargoyle -- ordinarily, I look like an UNfriendly one, right? -- which is no surprise because the photographer stood practically two inches away from the underside of my chin as he clicked away industriously. I keep wondering why no-one has informed the news-reporters of the world that in case they want to sell more copies of their newspapers, what they need is ATTRACTIVE pictures, and that even if their subjects are middle-aged grizzly bears such as me, it is far preferable to shoot from slightly above, rather than straight up the nostril. Maybe they need to carry around a pair of stilts? Or maybe I should just get the underside of my chin -- or chins, is perhaps what I should say -- tattooed with something too obscene to print in the newspapers? That'd show 'em! Hah.

Dancing With Demons

Suki & Demon
Just for a change from The Book, here's a link to the text of the keynote address I delivered at the Cartoon Congress in Nepal. This version, as it appears in Himal Southasian's December issue, is a good deal more coherent than what I said at the Congress!

The reading at PASHA

The event was a GREAT success, I would say -- all thanks to Ranvir Shah, V.R.Devika and PRAKRITI Foundation, organizers of the event. The venue was absolutely ideal, in Pasha, the discotheque of the Park Hotel. The glittering accents in walls and ceiling and the pop-opulence of the decor perfectly suited the ethos of my book, set as it is in a decadent dystopia a couple of decades into the future. There were at least 60 people present and good questions were asked and the stack of books supplied by Landmark bookstore was almost halved (this is a guess. I wasn't counting) by the end of the evening.

What do people think of the book? My guess is they're puzzled by it. I often (e.e., not just for ESCAPE) encounter an expression on the faces of would-be readers of: Why? Why has she chosen to write about THIS? Whereas for me the question is always the other way around -- How can anyone afford NOT to be thinking of these issues? And Better get this book written and published before someone else has the exact same idea (okay, so that's my paranoia speaking)! But answering the "why" is always difficult, practically impossible when young, anxious-looking journalists ask it.

I realize, too, that there's an unspoken notion about what subjects are concerned acceptable for people writing from within the Southasian context. I may be overstating the case, but it's as if we're "allowed" to describe our world and of the world outside when viewed from our perspective but larger contexts are tacitly considered to be off-limits to us. So if I do not specifically nationalize my characters that is considered bizarre and perhaps presumptuous -- even though I know, when I read Western science fiction, quite often the characters are considered to be representative of all humans. When they're not, their nationality or racial type is explicitly characterized as other-than.

The "permission" is not simply offered or denied from outside -- it's our own audience which feels uncomfortable if one of us makes statements outside our prescribed domain. Is it because there's no actual curiosity about the worlds outside our world? Or is it because there are no markets for publishing our opinions about outside-worlds? A combination of both is what it must be: few publishers can afford to produce books for which there are no known readers.

Ah well.

Two more to go, in Bangalore and Bombay! Then I guess I'm done for the moment.

UPDATE: BANGALORE READING!

Yes, it's been fixed:
PLACE: LANDMARK
DATE: DECEMBER 12th
TIME: 7 pm.

No invites needed, please just come.

(misch? Just so you know, this is directly because of the comment you posted a couple of weeks ago!)

*Review*Review*Review*

... and here's the OUTLOOK review -- it's passionately negative. It's what I characterize as a GOOD bad review: it's not a personal attack against me or whatever I may have said in my interviews, but is instead the reviewer's sincere beliefs about what he thinks is wrong with the book. Fair enough! I'm all for informed dissent. Go read the review ...

*REVIEW*REVIEW*REVIEW*

This appeared in the INDIAN EXPRESS (Sunday, 23rd November 2008) -- and is what I would call a GOOD review. By Uma Mahadevan-Dasgupta.

Here's the opening passage:


Future Imperfect
Who needs women when there’s genetic engineering?
by Uma Mahadevan-Dasgupta

“Interviewer: What term would you use for annihilating two-thirds of your population?
General: Drain-clearing. Our world was suffocating in its own excrement. No one could face the solution — and why? Because of a tired old myth called the ‘Sanctity of Life’!”

Manjula Padmanabhan’s Escape is set in a dystopian future, in a wasteland presided over by Generals who reject uniqueness and individuality as well as the natural processes of birth and death in favour of genetic engineering and cloning — or, as they call it, “regeneration” — and who, therefore, see no need for women (whom they call the “Vermin Tribe”) in this artificially controlled world. Even language has been stripped down and shaped to suit the requirements of this new world — the past is the “Time Before”, distortion is “sculpture”, and even proper names are strictly limited to an approved list.

In this particular domain served by manufactured “Drones” and guarded by packs of vicious “Boyz”, the General has managed to get rid of almost all the women, including the little girls — which is why it is so important that Meiji, the young female protagonist of the novel, should be safely taken away from this land ...


Meanwhile, here's a BOOK READING UPDATE for CHENNAI:

DATE: 30th NOVEMBER 2008
TIME: 6.30 pm
PLACE: "PASHA", The PARK, Nungumbakkam High Rd.
No invitations necessary, just come.

Comment Piece
And this appeared on Nov 25th in Business Standard in Nilanjana Roy's book column. A gentle reminder that gender-experimental writing has been around for a while ...