Go ahead release it!

Dear David,

Thanks for this final draft. I am satisfied both with text and the cover. Please go ahead and release it.

wonder what retail cost you have in mind for the product.

regards.

Becoming eternal

 

‘When he spoke again it appeared “after along time”.’

 ’Why don’t you change ‘ a long time’ to ‘eternity’, the editor advised.

The author thought for a moment. In fact he thought for a long time and stopped before it became ‘eternity’.

“No”, the author said, ” I am happy with ‘a long time’.  Please do not try to infect my work with superlatives that will render the work pretentious. I do not want to become eternal.

“Thank you anyway.”

Give or take the Nobel

Nobakov once wrote that the torrent of dialogues that fill the pages of a book is a big put off for him and he does not think twice before putting a book away.

And here you come across a book of a Nobel winning author, offering a page of narration after twenty page full of dialogues, or at that rate. The short dialogues full of wit and humour unsuitable for the wealthy couple in their late age, who talk of death often. And the minder couple of them, also in the late middle age but equally witty. The energy reflected thus do not befit the characters, neither the intellect. I will have difficulty resumimg reading it-give or take the Nobel.

A bookish trash.

No matter whichever book you search on an online book store, certain books continue to appear on your screen. I would pay anything for a software that filters the trash.

woman… women.

Doing a search of books with a word from the above two, it is revealing how many titles you come across like: ‘Women and Development’, ‘ Alcoholism and woman’, ‘Woman working’   or ‘Sewing wemen’, and so on. I mean the books that promote the activism.

The politics of sex dominates the agenda.

Talk… Show??

The talk show that I stopped watching in 1997 is disappearing in 2011, as was declared by its hostess. What a loss…

The mystrey begins to deepen

I am fascinated by the power of fiction. It is among the most enduring of the various art forms. It is history and the future, as you see it. Finding a writer that you tend to agree with is rare but a remarkable discovery. Once it happens the life begins to change.

Your most memorable moments of life may include the time you spent reading the work of your favourite author. Which could remain with you when you are lonely, apart from a few other memories.

It is about thoughts, ideas, emotions and a vision. Remembering, relating and so much else. All these need very little instruments that are visible. The mystery begins to deepen.

Feel, felt, and felt

I was trying the feel what I felt about the discussion I had with a friend the other day . But I felt I am not sure how I feel about what I felt. Feeling so unsure, I feel there could be another way to go about it: to feel what I felt that time. This effort was lumbering on my feelings and I feel I will never feel what I felt. I also feel I better leave unfelt what I am not able to feel after working so hard.  

I wonder how anybody would feel for what I had not felt.

The Fortuitous?

Having read a little of the translation of the stories of Prem Chand by David Ruben, it is heartening to know that he not only was the contemporary of Maupassant but also was inspired by him.

Then there was the similar theme of ‘Mange ki Ghari’ of Prem Chand and ‘The Neckless’ of Maupassant. That apart both the stories richly describe the context and the time in which the two great writers created their work. So it was fortuitous on many counts for the of them.

Oh My Car!

 

 

I thought I was the only one

who owned and drove my car:

The symbol of finally having arrived,

of a middle class.

I found the whole economy and the system

riding on my shoulders,

while I rode my car.

They appeared collapsing like a house of cards,

When I decided to give up my car.

Oh my car!

Now everybody is coming out to help me

keep on driving my car.

Oh my car!

The jobs, elections and sexy models;

and the endless news hours will be lost,

If I lose my car.

Oh my car!