Saturday 4 August 2012

Best Sellers This Week : Kalam's 'Turning Point' Tops The List


Delhi: Former president APJ Abdul Kalam`s ‘Turning Points’ continued to reign in the top spot in the non-fiction category this week, as did EL James` ‘Fifty Shades of Grey’ in the fiction category. 
Non-fiction

Title: Turning Points
Author: A.P.J. Abdul Kalam
Publisher: Harper Collins

Title: Pax Indica
Author: Shashi Tharooor
Publisher: Penguin

Title: India: A Sacred Geography
Author: Diana L. Eck
Publisher: Harmony Books

Title: Churning the Earth: The Making of Global India
Author: Aseem Shrivastava & Ashish Kothari
Publisher: Penguin

Title: Breakout Nations
Author: Ruchir Sharma
Publisher: Penguin

Fiction

Title: Fifty Shades Of Grey (Trilogy)
Author: EL James
Publisher: Arrow Books

Title: The Case of Deadly Butter Chicken
Author: Tarquin Hall
Publisher: Random House

Title: Narcopolis
Author: Jeet Thayil
Publisher: Faber & Faber

Title: Bring Up The Bodies
Author: Hilary Mantel
Publisher: Fourth Estate

Title: I, Michael Bennet
Author: James Patterson
Publisher: Century


Wednesday 6 June 2012

Queen's English Society Decides To Shut Shop!


London (ANI): The Queen's English Society has announced that it will cease to exist at the end of this month as no one cares about speaking proper English language anymore.
For 40 years, it has battled to defend the English language against poor grammar, spelling and punctuation.
But the society has finally conceded defeat to the Twitter and text-obsessed generation and is to fold, after none of its 1,000 members volunteered for roles within the organisation, the Daily Mail reported.
Chairman Rhea Williams revealed that the move in a message to supporters after the annual meeting, attended by just 22 people.
"Despite a request for nominations for chairman, vice- chairman, administrator, web master, and membership secretary no one came forward. So I have to inform you that QES will no longer exist," she said.
Its magazine Quest will publish one final time and then "all activity will cease and the society will be wound up."
Expressing sadness, she said: "Things change, people change. People care about different things. Lots of societies are having problems. Lives have changed dramatically over the past 40 years. People don't want to join societies like they used to."
Since being founded by a teacher in 1972, the QES has pointed out errors made by numerous public figures, including the monarch herself in a speech.
"It pains me to say it: the Queen has made a frightful howler," ex-chairman Kevin Botting said.
Patron Gyles Brandreth insisted that "the Queen's English isn't under threat" despite the closure.
"Her Majesty can sleep easy. The language is still in the good hands of all the people who speak good English," he said.
One of the society's biggest achievements was helping to shape elements of English in the National Curriculum. 

Monday 30 April 2012

Women Stepping Out To Become Authors


Delhi: (IANS) An increasing number of women are now stepping out in the world of literature to shape up the voice of feminist authors, feel well-known women authors and publishers.

"As a feminist publisher, I find it interesting to see more and more women willing to write. We often talk if there`s `women`s writing` in India, but on seeing writers coming up with ideas on all sorts of issues, it`s great," said Urvashi Butalia, director and co-founder of publishing house Kali for Women.

"And other than just works of non-fiction, women writers are also coming up with pertinent issues such as female foeticide and dowry brought out through fiction writing," Butalia added.

Well-known authors and names from the publishing industry gathered here Saturday at an award function for Indian Women`s Press Corps (IWPC) short story writing competition. In the first-ever story-writing competition by the professional organisation for women journalists, three best story writers were awarded among 75 entries received.

Present for the award ceremony, Prasar Bharati chairperson and founder-president of IWPC, Mrinal Pande, said: "It is notable that some of the best writers in the country are women. And they are present among us. But when writing begins to happen, the mind is androgynous. There is a man inside every woman writer and vice versa," Pande said.

Treading into the art of story writing was pulling women writers into literature, the authors said.

"Short story writing is the most difficult kind of writing as opposed to the popular impression that this form is inferior or easier than longer novels. Writers should not get discouraged by this wall of opposition. These are exciting times for both writers and publishers in India, and we find more women wanting to write now," said Butalia.

The jury included author Githa Hariharan, Urvashi Butalia, and Antara Dev Sen, editor of The Little Magazine.

The first prize was won by Chennai-based short story writer Hema. S. Raman for "A Good Father is Hard to Find", the second prize was bagged by freelance journalist Azera Parveen Rahman, who reports for newswire IANS, for her story "Letters to Unborn Sister", while the third prize was bagged by Vijaya Venkataraman, who teaches Spanish at Delhi University, for her story "A Moment of Reckoning".

Wednesday 28 March 2012

Marriage Guide For Muslims Suggests 'Wife Beating' Ways


London: (IANS) An Islamic marriage guide advising men on 'the best ways' to beat their wives has sparked outrage in Britain, especially among moderate Muslims who say that it encourages domestic violence.

The book - A Gift For Muslim Couple - tells husbands that they should beat their wives with "hand or stick or pull her by the ears", the Daily Mail reported.

Authored by Maulavi Ashraf Ali Thanvi, who is understood to be a prominent Islamic scholar, the 160-page book claims to be a "presentation for newlyweds" or couples who have been together for some years.

"The book... deals with the subject of marriage and after marriage relationship, as well as the various pitfalls of marriage, causes of breakdown and their causes," reads the book's blurb.

The book claims to narrate "real life incidents" and advises on "different aspects of family life and how to run the institution of marriage successfully".

The book, however, also states that a husband should treat the wife "with kindness and love, even if she tends to be stupid and slow sometimes".

The book has faced backlash from moderate Muslims.

Monday 12 March 2012

Erotic 'Fifty Shades of Grey' Becomes Best Seller In US


Washington: (ANI) An erotic novel ‘Fifty Shades of Grey’ has become such a success that gray ties, an article of clothing that plays a prominent role in the book, have become a hot item in New York, it has been revealed.
The novel, which recently reached the top of the fiction charts, is the first of a trilogy by British author E.L. James, published by a small independent Australian press in May 2011.

The print version has been hard to come by in bookstores, so many have been forced to read the e-book edition.

“Hundreds of women write to me every day asking where they can buy grey ties,” ABC News quoted Lyss Stern of Divamoms.com, who recommended the novel before it became popular as saying.

“The books are really making people want to have sex again. They’re a Band-Aid for marriages that maybe weren’t falling apart, but were getting stale,” Stern said.
Margot Sage-El, the owner of Watchung Booksellers in Montclair, N.J., called the trilogy a “phenomena.”

“It’s coming in and out of here so quickly that none of us have read it,” Sage-El said.
“When I got here this morning, men were lined up outside the door, saying their wives sent them to pick up the book. When there were two books left, an 86-year-old man waddled in, asked for the book and said, ‘My wife sent me in, she thought it would be good for her book group,’” Sage-El said.

‘Fifty Shades of Grey’ is about shy college student Anastasia Steele, who interviews the successful and attractive entrepreneur Christian Grey for her campus magazine. The two begin a passionate affair that forms the basis for a tale the author’s website claims “will obsess you, possess you, and stay with you forever.”

James’ website offers a soundtrack for each book that includes everything from opera to Frank Sinatra to Britney Spears. Why each book has a soundtrack is left for the reader to wonder.

According to The New York Times, readers aren’t the only ones who have been trying to snap up this book. American publishers battled over the rights to re-release the trilogy, with Vintage Books winning the fight with a seven-figure offer.

Vintage Books will release e-book editions of the trilogy on Monday. The publisher plans to print 750,000 redesigned paperback copies in early April.

Monday 27 February 2012

Delirious Delhi: As Dave Prager Saw It


Delhi(PTI) Expats often face challenges in Delhi but for US-based adman Dave Prager, the joy of living here far outweighed these challenges so much so that he tries to demystify the city by chronicling how he and his wife experienced: isolated, overwhelmed, and loving every minute of their nearly two-year-long stay.

"Every expat has different challenges. Some expats have a lot of trouble adjusting to having maids at home and peons in the office. Others have trouble with the pollution, or the heat. For me, my biggest challenge was the traffic, because I commuted from Delhi to Gurgaon every day. But for us, the joys of living in Delhi far outweighed the challenges," he says.

Dave was a copywriter working at a Madison Avenue advertising agency until fate offered him the opportunity to spend a year-and-a-half working at the agency`s office in Gurgaon. He and his wife Jenny Steeves leaped to spend the next 18 months "immersed in the cuisine of their dreams".

And then ‘Delirious Delhi’ was born, a 392 pages book offering hilarious anecdotes, astute observations, and attempted comprehension about what the couple encountered, ate, and stared at while stuck in traffic in Delhi.

"Delhi`s only going to get more influential in the world economy. That`s one reason I wrote the book: as more foreigners come to visit it, whether for business or for pleasure, it`s increasingly important to know what makes the city tick," Dave told reporters.

He feels most books about India written by Westerners document an obligatory personal journey.

"At first they hate India, but then they learn to love it. At first they`re overwhelmed by the chaos, but then the soul of the people shines through. At first they`re horrified by the poverty, but then they find spirituality in every speck of dirt.

"Many people have talked about Delhi`s problems. I like to focus on the positive side of things: the fact that Delhi, in the face of all its challenges, is still essentially peaceful and prosperous. If you look at history, you find that all of the world`s big cities had periods of great problems -- including New York, London, and Singapore. They`ve all
overcome those problems, and I know that Delhi will, too."

According to Prager, every traveller should know three Hindi words ? `chalo`, `theek hai` and `bhaiya`.

The couple’s trajectory in Delhi was different.

"We loved it instantly and intensively, every bit of it, as frightening and overwhelming and incomprehensible as it was."

"But the adventure we seek is not mountain climbing or jungle
safari -- It`s things like riding in an autorickshaw or shopping in a spice market. In other words, we fly 20 hours and pay thousands of dollars to do what everyday Indians would consider chores. That`s just the expat mindset."

Ask about incidents which he and his wife can never forget and he quips, "I can recall 392 pages worth of them. That`s why I wrote the book! But when I think back, I remember our Holi celebration and our walks through the Old City. Most of all, though, I think about all the great food we ate. More than anything, our memories of Delhi revolve around food."

And his take on Delhi`s food and hygiene, "You can`t judge a book by its cover, and you can`t judge a restaurant by its tablecloth. In Delhi, every reward has an equal and opposite challenge necessary to redeem it: which means that sometimes the best food can be found in the not-so-best places."

Organised into 12 thematic chapters (like worklife, transportation, and food), "Delirious Delhi", published by HarperCollins, is perfect for expats and locals alike: it helps newcomers orient themselves to this intense and amazing city, and it lets veterans see it through eyes that have never seen anything like it before.

Tuesday 14 February 2012

'Hira Mandi' By Claudine Le Toumeur d'lson: Life in Lahore's 'Dirt Bowl'


New Delhi: (IANS) Hira Mandi, the traditional red light quarter of Lahore, lives in the popular mindscape through its stories of longing, loss and 'mujras' after the Pakistan government clamped down on prostitution in the 1970s, says noted French writer Claudine Le Tourneur d'lson.
Her fictional biography, 'Hira Mandi', based on the life story of Iqbal Husain, the son of a Hira Mandi courtesan, has connected to the English-speaking world with its first-ever translation by the capital-based Roli Books.
The novel, originally written in French in 2006, went on sale in India this week after an informal launch at the Alliance Francaise in the capital Monday. It will debut in Pakistan at the Karachi Literature Festival starting Saturday.
Claudine describes the book "as her love affair with the people of Hira Mandi, with whom she had spent weeks in Lahore as if she was a part of them".
"The book has been inspired by Iqbal Hussain, son of a Hira Mandi prostitute, whom I had met in 1988. Iqbal is an artist - perhaps the only one of his kind - and a restaurateur. He owns an eatery, Cuckoo's Den, in Hira Mandi where he serves traditional Lahori food," Claudine told IANS here.
Iqbal is a misfit of an artist in Pakistan, where "even talking about prostitutes is a taboo", the writer said.
"Iqbal is not very comfortable among people though he has been drawing Lahore and the world to Hira Mandi with his food," Claudine said. Cuckoo's Den is a mandatory stopover for tourists in Lahore.
Iqbal uses the dancing girls of Hira Mandi as models for his impressionistic paintings "of figures and landscapes without expressions of sex", the writer said.
"In his leisure, Iqbal spends his time helping the dancing girls. He is very human... Iqbal says, 'I am a man before a Muslim,'" Claudine recalled.
Iqbal in Claudine's novel is the hero Shanwaz Nadeem, who narrates his life story in first person.
Shanwaz's earliest memories of Hira Mandi are of his beautiful 20-year-old mother Naseem, who lives in her Mughal-style "haveli" with her aunts, cousins and her five-year-old son in the narrow crowded bylanes in the old walled city of Lahore.
Naseem's quarters are partitioned and Shanwaz wakes up every night to the "cries, moans and sighs of his mother in the bedroom on the other side".
Shanwaz's life charts Pakistan's turbulent history from partition to the Bhutto years, Zia-ul Haq's repressive regime, fundamentalist violence and the years of "The Satanic Verses".
Hira Mandi gradually disintegrates around Shanwaz, leaving him with memories of its once-forbidden grandeur - and unrequited desires - amid aging courtesans and confused novices.
"The residents of Hira Mandi had hoped that the 'Bhuttos' would bring in democracy and free them of repression and blind police atrocities...But Benazir Bhutto had failed to do much for women. I suppose they were disappointed in the end..." the writer said.
The Hira Mandi of the courtesans does not exist any more.
"The dancing girls (the prettier ones) have either moved to Dubai where the business is good while the others are spread across hotels in Lahore," Claudine said.
Segregated as a red light area during the British Raj for "the benefit of the soldiers" in the old Anarkali Bazar overlooking the Badshahi mosque, Hira Mandi was known for its "refined courtesans with impeccable manners, accomplished in performing arts, music and traditional gastronomy".
However, the tradition of dancing girls in the old Lahore city - a walled settlement - dates back to the reign of emperor Akbar whose son, prince Salim, once fell in love with Anarkali, a dancing girl from Lahore.