The Literary City
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EXPLOCITY PODCASTS presents THE LITERARY CITY With Ramjee Chandran. This literary podcast is devoted to books and authors. It features interviews with a stellar line up of authors, both world famous and also authors who are being discovered—the only criterion being the quality of the prose. Topics are generally literary and include history, biographies, literature and literary fiction. The Literary City podcasts celebrates authors, poets, playwrights, grammar police, literary lounge lizards...and, oh yes, a cunning linguist or ten.
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4 days ago
A Disquiet In The Queen Of All Nations With Abhijit Sengupta
In what is meant to be his quiet and reflective corridor of retirement, my guest today, Abhijit Sengupta grapples with a disquiet that lingers. A former senior IAS officer and therefore, you might say, a custodian of order and democracy, a lifetime of service to the nation has clearly left him with a profound sense of duty that refuses to retire with him.
Abhijit’s expression of angst—a visceral response to the erosion of the democratic foundations that he cherished—has resulted in his latest book, The Queen of All Nations. A response to what he sees as the foundations of democracy that are being visibly eroded with every headline and each policy shift, serving up yet another dissonant note in a score he thought he knew by heart.
It is understandably difficult for anyone to come to grips with the realisation that the ideals he held dear are slipping through the cracks of a society in a time of ideological polarisation.
So, amidst all this angst, Abhijit Sengupta becomes a reluctant activist in this shifting landscape of incipient fascism and rising fundamentalism. But he channels his efforts not as a lament for a bygone era but as something of a rallying cry for the return of ideals. With the optimism that the spirit of a plural, democratic society can endure if those who believe in it refuse to be silent witnesses to its demise.
The Queen of All Nations is more than a historical narrative. It's a call for greater awareness of history and what got us here. It is a poignant reflection on the anguish of this intellectual in a world grappling with political turmoil.
And, as a comfortable read, the book serves as a lighthouse for readers of the younger generation whom he takes on a sweeping journey through the annals of modern India, delving into the intricate political landscape, social upheavals, and cultural transformations that have shaped the nation's identity.
To discuss his book, his ethic and his state of mind, he joins from his home in Bangalore, a city we share.
Buy *The Queen Of All Nations*: https://amzn.to/3sDCh09*
*Buy *A to Z*: https://amzn.to/49QmM5F*
*Read *Ramjee Chandran’s review of A to Z*: https://bit.ly/3T0JWQS
*ABOUT ABHIJIT SENGUPTA
*Abhijit Sengupta joined the Indian Administrative Service in 1972 and retired in 2008 as Secretary, Ministry of Culture, Government of India. He has Master's degrees in Public Administration from Carleton University, Ottawa, Canada, and in English Literature from Delhi University. He received the prestigious Pearson fellowship of the IDRC, Canada in 1984-85 to study Public Administration.
*WHAT'S THAT WORD?!
C*o-host Pranati "Pea" Madhav joins Ramjee Chandran in the fun etymology segment, "WHAT'S THAT WORD?!" where they discuss the "FULL STOP."
*CONTACT US
*Reach us by mail: theliterarycity@explocity.com
or simply, tlc@explocity.com
Or here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/theliterarycity
Or here: https://www.instagram.com/explocityblr/
Music by Sergii Pavkin from Pixabay
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Nov 21, 2023
The Secret Of More With Tejaswini Apte-Rahm
The essence of historical fiction is telling stories set in a particular period of time. They transport us to a different place, offering insights into the past while exploring themes that are relatable across generations.
In the craft of historical fiction, authors take creative liberties with places, events, and characters, using them as foundations for their stories. Here are some noteworthy examples: "Gone with the Wind" by Margaret Mitchell, "War and Peace" by Leo Tolstoy, "The Pillars of the Earth" by Ken Follett, and “The Great Gatsby”... Fitzgerald. Among such works most discussed of course is Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s “One Hundred Years Of Solitude.”
One of the few Indian writers who have attempted a huge span of time in a novel is my guest today, Tejaswini Apte-Rahm. Her debut novel, "The Secret of More," unfolds in colonial Bombay and spans 50 years—1899 to 1952. (Another such notable work is David Davidar’s “The House Of Blue Mangoes”—featured in my conversation with him in an earlier episode on this podcast: https://litcity.in/e41-sptfy.)
Tejaswini’s story captures the transformation of Bombay, under British rule, from a mercantile centre to a busy metropolis. And the emergence of a vibrant movie industry—starting with silent movies.
And against this intriguing backdrop, she unravels the story of a young man named Tatya, who is driven by a relentless desire for “more” success. Tatya is modelled after Tejaswini’s great-grandfather—and she crafted his character and that of early Bombay through extensive research, including the oral histories of her family.
It's easy to understand why "The Secret Of More" has captured the attention of critics like myself and many others. There's something truly compelling about this novel that draws you in and keeps you there. Managing to maintain a charged narrative across five decades is not easy, but Tejaswini does it well. Deservedly, the book just won the Tata Literature Live First Book Award For Fiction 2023, and at the time of this recording, it's shortlisted for both the JCB and the Atta Galatta awards. The JCB award winner is to be announced around the time this episode goes live.
I invited her on this podcast to get a look at her creative process. So she now joins me here.
*ABOUT TEJASWINI APTE-RAHM
*Tejaswini Apte-Rahm's short story collection, These Circuses That Sweep Through the Landscape, was shortlisted for two awards in 2017. She co-authored an environmental education book for children, The Poop Book!, nominated for the Jarul Book Award 2021-22 and translated into Tibetan. Her fiction has appeared in various publications. She has worked as a journalist and environmental researcher. She studied in Singapore and the UK, and has lived in Serbia, Israel, Cambodia, Thailand, Myanmar, Bangladesh, Fiji and Azerbaijan. She currently lives in Germany.
BUY *THE SECRET OF MORE*: https://amzn.to/40LDTBn
*WHAT'S THAT WORD?!
C*o-host Pranati "Pea" Madhav joins Ramjee Chandran in the fun etymology segment, "WHAT'S THAT WORD?!"
*
CONTACT US
Reach us by *mail: theliterarycity@explocity.com or simply, tlc@explocity.com
Or here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/theliterarycity
Or here: https://www.instagram.com/explocityblr/
Music by Aleksey Chistilin from
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Nov 7, 2023
Mani Shankar Aiyar And The Memoirs Of A Very Literary Maverick
My guest today is the remarkable Mani Shankar Aiyar. If you haven’t heard of him, let’s simply admit that you’ve been living under a rock.
If you've been anywhere near the worlds of diplomacy, politics, or literature, you will know of him in detail but let me sum up his remarkable journey as succinctly as I can.
Mani Shankar Aiyar joined the Indian Foreign Service in 1963. He then went on to become the Consul General in Karachi, Pakistan in 1978 through 1982. His path took a significant turn when he entered the Prime Minister's Office in 1985, working closely with the late Prime Minister, Rajiv Gandhi.
However, in 1989, he made a pivotal decision to leave the diplomatic arena and dive headfirst into politics. He served off and on as a Member of Parliament for the Congress Party for 25 years.
Aiyar is a diplomat and politician—a man of words with a deep well of knowledge and a vast literary appetite. His unfiltered and honest expression, which has sometimes landed him in hot water, causing his own party, the Congress Party, to distance themselves from his candid remarks.
His sense of humour is decidedly wicked and Wodehousian and he is nothing if not completely hilarious on demand. In one interview he spoke of his early Marxist leanings and being investigated by Indian intelligence for it. Of this, he said, “I think the Intelligence Bureau ultimately came to the conclusion that I was indeed a Marxist but of the Groucho variety.”
For all his education a career in the best places in administration, Aiyar remains a socialist. He believes that the real and equitable development of India can happen only ground up, from the villages. To this, the country created the Ministry Of Panchayati Raj… for him. He was its first minister.
His book, "Memoirs Of A Maverick," is a delightful read. It’s the sort of book that you can read in one sitting. And today, I am truly honored to host him again, this time on my podcast. He joins me from his home in Delhi, diplomat, politician, columnist, author, Mani Shankar Aiyar.
*ABOUT MANI SHANKAR AIYAR
*After Doon School and St Stephen’s College, he joined the Indian Foreign Service and served for 26 years. In 1985, Rajiv Gandhi inducted him into the Prime Minister's Office from where he migrated four years later into politics and Parliament.
Buy *MEMOIRS OF A MAVERICK*: https://amzn.to/3FJfsuy
*WHAT'S THAT WORD?!
C*o-host Pranati "Pea" Madhav joins Ramjee Chandran in "WHAT'S THAT WORD?!", where they discuss the phrase "RAINING CATS AND DOGS*,
*CONTACT US
*Reach us by mail: theliterarycity@explocity.com or simply, tlc@explocity.com
Or here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/theliterarycity
Or here: https://www.instagram.com/explocityblr/
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Oct 24, 2023
The Art Of The Thriller And The American Boyfriend With Ivy Ngeow
In an essay, published in a 1964 edition of The Times Literary Supplement, V S Naipaul wrote:
"The language was ours, to use as we pleased. The literature that came with it was therefore of peculiar authority, but this literature was like an alien mythology. There was, for instance, Wordsworth’s notorious poem about the daffodil. A pretty little flower, no doubt; but we had never seen it. Could the poem have any meaning for us?"
He was talking about the irrelevance of English language education that was bottled in the UK and served up to the colonies. He was speaking of the sensibilities that post-colonial writers must have felt when confronted with the British literary canon as their window to a worldview.
He eloquently expressed the perplexity felt by post-colonial writers when confronted with the British literary canon, which had been transplanted to their educational systems. Naipaul's words not only encapsulated the sentiment of those writers but also laid the foundation for the genre known as post-colonial literature.
He, along with his contemporaries, emerged as the pioneering voice of post-colonial literature, paving the way for subsequent generations. Yet, even now, the weight of the British canon lingers as a defining aspect of their literary heritage.
Today, we have the privilege of introducing you to Ivy Ngeow, a remarkable Malaysian author. She embodies the spirit of this literary fusion, skillfully weaving mystery narratives with a diverse tapestry of multicultural voices. Her latest work, "The American Boyfriend," stands as a testament to her storytelling prowess. This novel traverses the landscapes of the UK and the vibrant backdrop of Florida, offering an authentic and insightful narrative that mirrors the complexities of contemporary life.
Join us as we explore the enduring influence of the British canon on post-colonial literature and delve into the remarkable literary journey of Ivy Ngeow, our first Malaysian author on The Literary City.
*ABOUT IVY NGEOW
*Ivy Ngeow was born and raised in Malaysia. She holds an MA in Writing from Middlesex University, where she won the 2005 Middlesex University Literary Press Prize. Her debut, Cry of the Flying Rhino (2017), was awarded the International Proverse Prize in Hong Kong. Her novels include Heart of Glass (2018), Overboard (2020) and White Crane Strikes (2022). She is the commissioning editor of the Asian Anthology New Writing series. The American Boyfriend was longlisted for the Avon x Mushers Entertainment Prize. She lives in London.
Buy *THE AMERICAN BOYFRIEND*: https://amzn.to/3QBJiaZ
*WHAT'S THAT WORD?!
C*o-host Pranati "Pea" Madhav joins Ramjee Chandran in "WHAT'S THAT WORD?!", where they discuss the phrase "WATCHING THE PAINT DRY*
*CONTACT US
*Reach us by mail: theliterarycity@explocity.com or simply, tlc@explocity.com
Or here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/theliterarycity
Or here: https://www.instagram.com/explocityblr/
Background music by Geoff Harvey, Pixabay and Andy Warner,* *Tunetank
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Oct 10, 2023
What Happens When The Big Man Passes On? After Messiah With Aakar Patel
Most of us do not colour code our threat levels. But nations do.
Following 9/11, the Homeland Security Advisory System in America in 2002 came up with the warning system that we all know and love today in our TV shows—green, blue, yellow, orange and red, depending, obviously, on the severity of the threat.
Government officials plan and practice their responses to each threat level—war games for the bureaucrats.
What if the threat was not a threat in the conventional sense of some action that the nation must defend, but the threat that comes from nothing at all? One example is say, the leader of the nation passes and the administration suddenly loses its alpha and is left rudderless and the panjandrums receive no instructions on what to do next.
Building an entire novel built upon this possibility as a foundational premise, is my guest today, a journalist, author, analyst, and commentator, and now, novelist. Aakar Patel, known for his extensive body of work in politics, culture, and political economics, has ventured into the world of fiction with his debut novel—After Messiah.
A novel is a remarkable canvas for expressing ideas, freeing the author from the constraints of traditional media like newspapers.
Newspapers, for instance, are required to simply and clearly report what happened. But sometimes as a newsperson, you get to know about things that you cannot report by the usual rules of reportage. Such as off-the-record information that might be of great importance. The edit page of the newspaper is for such things— where you might reveal or hint at something, having editorialised it.
Aakar Patel's work raises essential questions about the role of the bureaucracy and the responsibilities it bears. His superior skills in prose ensure that his novel is not just thought-provoking but also an effortless—and very often funny—read. Aakar is not one to stay snugly inside the box; he busts out the whole “eager to learn and illuminate” ethic and thus, escapes the confines of convention.
Today, he unveils this debut novel. While After Messiah might be his debut novel, this is not his debut appearance on The Literary City. He is my first returning guest in almost two years of this show. He joins me from his home in Bangalore, a city we share.
PREVIOUS APPEARANCE: https://litcity.in/e14-sptfy
*ABOUT AAKAR PATEL*
He is a syndicated columnist who has edited English and Gujarati newspapers. His books include "Why I Write", "Our Hindu Rashtra: What It Is. How We Got Here", "Price of the Modi Years" and "The Anarchist Cookbook". His work reimagining South Asia, "The Case For Akhand Bharat" is out in 2024. He is the Chair of Amnesty International India.
BUY *AFTER MESSIAH*: https://amzn.to/3Q4Xj0q
*WHAT'S THAT WORD?!
*Co-host Pranati "Pea" Madhav joins Ramjee Chandran in "WHAT'S THAT WORD?!", where they discuss the word "*MESSIAH"*
*CONTACT US
*Reach us by mail: theliterarycity@explocity.com or simply, tlc@explocity.com
Or here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/theliterarycity
Or here: https://www.instagram.com/explocityblr/
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Sep 26, 2023
Reason And Hope In A Dark Time With History's Angel And Anjum Hasan
Good literature can help us navigate our own emotions and motivations, and it helps us see the world through the eyes of the writer. The best literature touches our hearts and our minds. It triggers our emotions, and makes us think critically about the world around us, by challenging our assumptions and consequently, expanding our understanding of what it means to be human.
Some writers write from the heart, some from the head. The truly literary among them speak from the junction of emotion and reason—and this is what makes literature powerful. It is what allows us to connect with characters and stories on a deeper level.
My guest today is an example of a writer who can write from the heart and from the head. She is novelist Anjum Hasan.
Anjum grew up in small town India, in Shillong, Meghalaya—as we imagine, an idyllic setting in which her early impressions of life and culture took root, she now lives in the urban sprawl of modern Bangalore.
And—judging from her earlier novels—she is comfortable in both skins. Anjum’s ability to traverse the two landscapes—both of small-town India and the ambition of Bangalore—is seamless. And this could be one reason why her insight is not just quick and keen, but unusual.
And this sense of the insight has led to some pretty evocative, well-crafted prose. A good example of this is her latest novel, History's Angel—a powerful and moving story about lives in a time of rising religious phobia. History’s Angel explores the protagonist Alif's challenges of navigating an increasingly incomprehensible contemporary India, where political unrest is the normal and nostalgia is the refuge. The story offers a perspective on the larger context of asserting humanity in the face of widening social fissures.
Anjum Hasan, apart from her novels, is someone I have always admired in general, for her prose. Her writing is sharp, compassionate, and darkly witty. What gets me most is her ability to craft sentences that are elegant but also accessible. I have always wanted to ask her about her prose. So she is joining me from her family home in lovely Shillong.
*ABOUT ANJUM HASAN
*
Anjum Hasan’s work has been shortlisted for the Sahitya Akademi Award, the Hindu Literary Prize, and the Crossword Fiction Award. She won the Valley of Words Fiction Award 2019. She has been a Homi Bhabha Fellow, a Charles Wallace Writer-in-Residence, and is currently a New India Foundation Fellow. Her essays, short stories and poems are widely published including in New York Review of Books, Granta, The Paris Review, Baffler, Los Angeles Review of Books, Wasafiri, Asia Literary Review, and Caravan. She is the co-editor of the recent anthology Future Library: Contemporary Indian Writing.
*BUY* *HISTORY’S ANGEL*: https://amzn.to/3tcUFwr
*WHAT'S THAT WORD?!*
Co-host Pranati "Pea" Madhav joins Ramjee Chandran in "WHAT'S THAT WORD?!", where they discuss the word "*ALEF*”
*CONTACT US
*
Reach us by mail: theliterarycity@explocity.com or simply, tlc@explocity.comOr here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/theliterarycityOr here: https://www.instagram.com/explocityblr/
Cover pic credit: Lekha Naidu.
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Sep 12, 2023
Prof Ganesh Devy - The Man Who Discovered Over 700 Languages In India
As a curious and casual reader of linguistics, one of the first things I learned is that there is no monolithic object called a single language. Languages are like a living organism, they grow and sometimes they are said to die, and sometimes, like humans, they disappear into a bureaucracy.
Age and origins of language are not straightforward because languages evolve gradually over time, their origins, often, shrouded in prehistory. So, to determine that a particular language is “pure” or that another one is the world’s oldest language is to make specious determination. And naturally everything specious leads to contention. And then, the idea of linguistic age can vary, depending on how one defines it—whether by the emergence of a common ancestor language, or by early written records, or other criteria. And so it goes. And although one’s language is the closest expression of one’s identity, the more we learn the more we will temper our assumptions with a generous measure of “I don’t know.”
This is exceptionally true of India. There is possibly no other landmass that offers up an overgrowth of languages, dialects and linguistic surprises as India does. All Indians know we have a diverse language landscape. Very few of us understand how astonishingly diverse.
My guest today is the remarkable Prof Ganesh Devy—one of India’s foremost intellectuals, a linguist, a literary critic, and a cultural activist renowned for his pioneering work in documenting endangered languages and championing linguistic and cultural diversity in India. He is the principal behind the mammoth People's Linguistic Survey of India—or PLSI—and the winner of national awards, including the Sahitya Akademi Award and the Padma Shri.
Prof. Devy's passion for language extends to his deep concern about the pitfalls of turning language into a political weapon. His idea of political activism is quite real—he lives it. His extensive travel and the time he spent living among tribal communities is a testament to his commitment as would his returning the Sahitya Akademi award in protest after the tragic killing of MM Kalburgi.
His most recent work is the book The Indians—Histories Of A Civilisation. A dazzling project that maps the history and evolution of the peoples of India. Written by over 100 scholars—and edited by Profs GN Devy & Ravi Korisettar and Tony Joseph—it maps every region of the country and speaks of the Indian human heritage of 12,000 years from the Ice Age to the present. And this book distills it into a little less than 700 pages, making it accessible for everyone, even with the most modest curiosity.
You probably have heard of Prof Ganesh Devy but if you have not, it is a very good idea to learn more about someone who has pretty much made it his life mission to unearth, protect and foster the plurality that makes India, India.
ABOUT PROFESSOR GANESH DEVY
He led the People’s Linguistic Survey of India (PLSI), a comprehensive documentation of all living Indian languages. He has received several awards including the Padma Shri, Prince Claus Award, and Linguapax Award.
Buy *The Indians: Histories of a Civilization*: https://amzn.to/3ZfoE2I
WHAT'S THAT WORD?!
Co-host Pranati "Pea" Madhav joins Ramjee Chandran in "WHAT'S THAT WORD?!", where they discuss the words "*MOB*" and “*CROWD*”
*CONTACT US
*Reach us by mail: theliterarycity@explocity.com or simply, tlc@explocity.com
Or here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/theliterarycity
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Aug 29, 2023
Tree And Serpent With John Guy Curator At The Met In New York
As part of Siddhartha’s awakening, he became aware of a spiritual energy in nature where trees had souls, birds had wisdom, and flowers bloomed no matter what the season. And snakes had the power of protection. And then there was all manner of mythical and hybrid creature contributing to the magical art and literature of Buddhism.
Of the many symbols and icons of Buddhism, there are two that are easily identifiable—the tree, everyone knows the most remembered thing is that the Buddha came to his enlightenment under one—the Bodhi tree—and another is the snake.
Snake cults have always been known to India as I guess there was always the danger of snakebites—still an issue today in most parts of India. But the snake features in the narrative of the Buddha’s life. In one famous story, a cobra coiled itself around the base of Buddha’s platform of the tree and then spread its hood over his head, to protect him from the elements as he reached his enlightenment. And even since, understandably, the snake has been used as the principal symbol of protection.
Happening right now, in New York City, as we speak is an exhibition called “Tree And Serpent” at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. It explores the origins of Buddhist art in India. The exhibition features more than 140 objects dating from 200 BC to 400 AD including sculptures, paintings, jewellery, and metalwork. It also explores the influences on early Buddhist art by other cultures, such as the Hellenistic world and the Roman Empire. The most significant slice of it is that this exhibition focuses on the contribution of South India to the Buddhist canon. Historically, the contribution of south India was often overlooked or downplayed and Tree And Serpent seeks to correct this gap in the narrative.
Tree And Serpent—not sure if I should call it a companion book—is the first book to focus on Buddhist art produced in South India from 200 BCE to 400 CE. While traditional narratives tend to focus on north India, this book presents Buddhist art from monastic sites in the south.
My guest today is John Guy. He is the author of Tree And Serpent and he is Florence and Herbert Irving curator of South and South Asian Art at the Met in New York. His scholarly association with Indian art spans a lifetime of work and I am deeply honoured to be able to speak with him today.
What I find amazing is what he had to go through to put this exhibition together. From ferreting out these Buddhist relics in remote parts of Andhra and other locations to shipping them to New York, the process would have been consuming. Amplify that when you consider that some of the heaviest pieces had to be transported, before the monsoons set in, by a boat, a ferry across the Krishna river and then on land to be loaded onto planes at Hyderabad.
ABOUT JOHN GUY
John Guy's research interests focus on the early Buddhist art of India and the temple arts of the Hindu-Buddhist-Jain traditions. He is an elected Fellow of the London Society of Antiquaries and of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
Buy *Tree & Serpent: Early Buddhist Art in India: *https://amzn.to/3PbDzaS. Head to your favourite bookstore for a deal.
*The Exhibition*: https://www.metmuseum.org/exhibitions/tree-and-serpent
WHAT'S THAT WORD?!
Co-host Pranati "Pea" Madhav joins Ramjee Chandran in "WHAT'S THAT WORD?!", where they discuss the word "*MONIKER*".
*CONTACT US
*Reach us by mail: theliterarycity@explocity.com or simply, tlc@explocity.com
Or here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/theliterarycity
Or here: https://www.instagram.com/explocityblr/
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Aug 15, 2023
Ahmed Naji Discovers Literature In An Egyptian Prison - The Story In Rotten Evidence
Today I‘m excited to be speaking with Ahmed Naji, a writer who spent two years in prison in Egypt for writing what the authorities judged to be objectionable material.
But while Ahmed Naji was in prison, he discovered literature and through that, himself. It’s an amazing story of a person who finds magic and hope in the unlikely environs of the library of a stereotypical prison—a pestilential and dank hovel, one biscuit short of hell.
But before I talk to him, I thought it might be useful to get some context going here, so, a little bit, about Egyptian literature first. Modern Egyptian literature began to flourish in the early 20th century, or right up to say the 1940s, as writers started to break away from traditional Arabic literary forms such as classical Arabic poetry, with specific meters and rhyming schemes. It was during that time that author Taha Hussein, often called the "Dean of Arabic Literature," challenged classical literary norms, when he introduced a more accessible style of prose.
The next decade saw the birth of a cultural renaissance with the overthrow of the monarchy in 1952 and the beginning of the republic. That’s about when Naguib Mahfouz happened. He went on to win the Nobel in 1988 and brought world attention to Egyptian literature.
As with all cultural forms, one decade tends to build on the previous and the successive decades have seen social realism, pioneering books, like "Woman at Point Zero", about the struggles of women in Egyptian society, and writers explained the challenges of contemporary life. There was the growth of female and feminist voices and of course the influences from the Arab Spring. Importantly, there has been a growth in contribution to literature from the Egyptian diaspora.
I found Ahmed Naji’s writing online and I was fascinated by his story and his work and we tracked him down to his new home in the United States. Ahmed’s latest book Rotten Evidence is a story about his time in prison, about how he discovered literature and found the writer in himself and the reality of protest. These lines capture the essence of the protest against censorship and being jailed for alleged obscenity.
"James Joyce, who swore to express himself with the greatest degree of freedom possible—and never to serve home, fatherland, or church—said a writer had three weapons: silence, exile, and cunning. Well, Joyce, they put me in prison, and all I had left was laughter and rage."
Such is the captivating prose of my guest today. Ahmed Naji joins me from his home in Las Vegas for this delightful conversation.
ABOUT AHMED NAJI
Ahmed Naji is a writer, journalist, documentary filmmaker... and criminal. His novel Using Life made him the only writer in Egyptian history to have been sent to prison for offending public morality. Naji has won several prizes including a Dubai Press Club Award and a PEN/Barbey Freedom to Write Award. He is currently a fellow at the Beverly Rogers, Carol C. Harter Black Mountain Institute.
Buy *Rotten Evidence: Reading and Writing in an Egyptian Prison*: https://litcity.in/rotten-evidence
WHAT'S THAT WORD?!
Co-host Pranati "Pea" Madhav joins Ramjee Chandran in "WHAT'S THAT WORD?!", where they discuss the Arabic proverb "*BUKRA FI'L MISH MISH*".
*CONTACT US
*Reach us by mail: theliterarycity@explocity.com or simply, tlc@explocity.com
Or here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/theliterarycity
Or here: https://www.instagram.com/explocityblr/
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Aug 1, 2023
Centres Of Power - In The Den With Indira Gandhi, Rajiv Gandhi And Chinmay Gharekhan
Why were the 1980s pivotal in so many respects? Think the giddy days of glasnost and perestroika, the end of the cold war—of the whole Soviet Union in fact, liberalisation and globalisation, GATT and open borders, the assassination of Indira Gandhi, the rise of Rajiv Gandhi—who stepped on the gas and pushed the country towards a more open economy.
I became a lobbyist in Delhi in the 80s. I was barely twenty when I joined as a fresher, in 1980. When I quit my job and returned home to Bangalore in 1988, I had aged more than the chronology of the eight years would suggest.
As a young man growing into his own, I was privileged to have been in the middle of the most pivotal period of Indian administration and world history since WWII. Up close and in the middle of it all. It was a lesson in how policy and administration works, it was a lesson in understanding the scale of their enterprise, and it was a lesson in humility.
When you are in your twenties, you have the answer to all problems—and there’s a good side to that because you feel both empowered and a participant, with access to the centres of power.
But my guest today was one of those who was, himself a centre of power—Chinmay Gharekhan. Of the many important offices he held, one of which was in the Prime Minister’s Office—both during the time of Indira Gandhi and then Rajiv Gandhi. And then he was India’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations.
His book is a memoir of his days at the Prime Minister’s Office, the real seat of power in India and following that in the United Nations Security Council during the period of the First Gulf War—another greatly pivotal period for us.
Chinmay Gharekhan is the author of the memoir, Centres Of Power - My Years In The Prime Minister’s Office and Security Council. It is always fascinating to think of our history—as these things influence the way we think today—and when you have someone who had a ringside seat to those events, you listen carefully.
And joining me from his home in Scarsdale in New York is Ambassador Gharekhan.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Chinmaya R. Gharekhan, a distinguished member of the Indian Foreign Service, served in several capitals in different continents. He had the unique privilege of working with two prime ministers, Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi, for a period of about five years. He spent the better part of his career dealing with the United Nations. As ambassador of India to the United Nations in New York, he represented India on the Security Council during 1991–1992 and was twice president of the Security Council. He was appointed prime minister’s special envoy for West Asia and the Middle East Peace Process during 2005–2009.
Buy *Centres Of Power*: https://amzn.to/3DmnM2u
WHAT'S THAT WORD?!
Co-host Pranati "Pea" Madhav joins Ramjee Chandran in "WHAT'S THAT WORD?!", where they discuss the etymology of "*HOIST WITH ONE'S OWN PETARD*"
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Jul 18, 2023
With Tenzin Dickie And The Defiance Of Tibetan Literature In The Bardo
A few weeks ago, I was reading LitHub, one of the many literary magazines I enjoy greatly, and I found an essay that caught my immediate fancy. It is titled, “Literature in the Bardo: Tenzin Dickie on the Past, Present, and Future of the Tibetan Essay”.
Not only was I captivated by her prose but importantly, it opened a window to the world of Tibetan literature.
Growing up in India, Tibet exists by default, if nothing else. We know a smattering of things about that country and its culture. There’s the Dalai Lama, there are the Tibetan settlements in Dharamsala in the north and Bylakuppe, south of Bangalore and we know that the Tibetans come here to run away from the Chinese occupation of their country. Inevitably there’s someone who tells us to go to that Tibetan doctor—and that their system of medicine is the best.
Things like this make us believe we know Tibet more than we really do. Gives us a sense of familiarity but not any knowledge. You don’t think much about it…
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Jul 4, 2023
Godfrey Pereira And The Insane Story Of An English Smuggler In Bombay
This is the incredible but true story of an Englishman—a dockworker in Bombay in the 1940s, who became a smuggler around the time of Independence.
Not far offshore from the Ferry Wharf in Mumbai is a small island. It’s only some 100 metres out by boat, and you can see it from Ferry Wharf. It’s called Cross Island. You can see Cross Island on Google Maps. But even people who have lived in Mumbai all their lives are not aware that this island even exists.
Mystery has always shrouded Cross Island. And like every abandoned or uninhabited place, it is beset by urban legend. The usual stuff… it’s haunted… it has ghosts… but the most compelling mystery of Cross Island is the story of the gold supposedly buried there.
My guest today, Godfrey Pereria reads a passage about the gold that was buried on Cross Island because of the doings of the famous Portuguese poet Luis de Camoes. And about how the ship captain who actually hid the gold on the island was killed in a fight and how…
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Jun 20, 2023
A Tumbleweed In Shakespeare & Company - Jeremy Mercer
When George Whitman, in 1951, established a bookstore he wanted it to be more than a literary sanctuary for book lovers. He turned it into a sanctuary for writers seeking inspiration.
The bookshop — as any devotee of books or, really, any of my listeners would have guessed — is the legendary Shakespeare & Company in the heart of Paris. Whitman welcomed all writers who needed a place to stay as his own personal guests at the bookstore — and to accommodate them, he had rooms and beds and made space available, entirely free. This philosophy is best summarised by a sign painted above an inner door that reads, “Be kind to strangers lest they be angels in disguise”.
In exchange for staying there for free, these indigent writers — Whitman called them tumbleweeds — were asked only to read one book every day, and help stack books and carry out other chores in the shop. Oh, and they had to write something autobiographical about themselves for Whitman’s archives. Today, Shakespe…
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May 9, 2023
Aamina Ahmad And The Return Of Faraz Ali
Authors have for a long time used literary expressions of anguish as a powerful tool to connect with readers. They may use language and symbolic references to nuance the emotions associated with it, but whatever their approach, they look to inspire emotions that deliver that gut punch.
My guest today, Aamina Ahmad clearly knows how to handle the literature of conflicted emotions. Her debut novel, The Return Of Faraz Ali—set in the walled city of Lahore, Pakistan—is the story of a cop who is asked to hush up the murder of a prostitute by some powerful figures. But his deep connection to the Mohullah from his past takes the story in a direction that is both unexpected and compelling.
While “The Return Of Faraz Ali” might be Aamina’s debut novel, she is an experienced writer. Her background and career speak to this experience.
Aamina was born and raised in London and studied English in college. She worked for the BBC as a script editor, including on epic stories like The East…
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Apr 25, 2023
John Keane And The Shortest History Of Democracy
There are many who believe that the cradle of democracy was Greece. But if anything, Greece may lay claim to the etymology of the word democracy, but not to democracy itself. Whence then?
The short answer by many historians is that the first evidence of democracy was in the Syrian-Mesopotamian region (Mesopotamia would be a large region around Iran as we know it today). That was around 2500 BC and this democracy was characterised by assemblies of people. And then—about 1000 years later—around 1500 BC the Indian sub-continent saw people assembling for public governance.
And in the thousands of years since, we have seen the growth of democracy—marked by greater inclusiveness of its stakeholders. To see all of it laid out in a convenient timeline is both fascinating and illuminating because it provides a ready reference and immediate context.
My guest today is John Keane historian and Professor of Politics, at the University of Sydney. John Keane is credited with introducing and…
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Apr 11, 2023
The Insatiable Feminism Of The Fabulous Shobhaa De
That was my guest today, the incomparable Shobhaa De.
Shobhaa is one of the most famous writers in India and her reputation has travelled everywhere, but it behooves me to talk about the realpolitik of Shobhaa De’s literature.
Let me tell you why Shobhaa De is so significant to English writing in India. Not only was her great success as an author inspiring, but to my mind, the most significant thing I can say about Shobhaa is that she kicked down the doors for generations of women writers who followed her.
Uniquely, she gave women a voice. At the risk of reduction, I’ll venture that her novels explore the lives and loves of Indian women who embrace their sensuality without apology.
Despite, simply living their lives is often a patriarchy-fostered challenge, her protagonists are never sad victims. They follow their dreams rather than fit into society's expectations. At the fount of their sentience, they will not be marginalised.
I imagine that such a narrative is even possible…
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Mar 21, 2023
Nilanjana Roy And The Literature Of The Black River
Nilanjana Roy is the girl who, as a child, ate books — in fact, she was known to have devoured them whole. This is obviously a reference to her book The Girl Who Ate Books, a paean to writing, writers and other such pursuit.
Nilanjana is, most recently, author of the novel, Black River and she is my guest on The Literary City and we will talk about her fascinating career, from her early love of reading and writing, which led to her becoming a respected voice in the literary world.
One of Nilanjana’s better known works is "The Wildings," a novel that tells the story of a community of cats who must band together to protect their home from a menacing force. But for me, it is the "The Girl Who Ate Books" — a memoir in which she reflects on her lifelong relationship with literature and evidently, the impact it has had on her life.
In addition to being a novelist, Nilanjana has been a journalist — and something that all journalists agree on is that it provides a certain respect fo…
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Mar 7, 2023
Jeet Thayil And The Epic Of Names Of The Women
In the beginning of the episode, you will hear my guest Jeet Thayil read from his book, Names Of The Women — women whose paths crossed with Christ, and who, it is said, stayed by him during the crucifixion. And after.
I have been fortunate to read so many books since I started hosting this podcast. Each book is as wonderful and as compelling as the next. And then a book comes along, like Names Of The Women that holds the craft of writing to a higher standard.
Let me tantalizingly cycle back to that in a minute.
Penguin had sent me a copy of a book compiled and edited by Jeet — The Penguin Book Of Indian Poets — an almost 1000-page thick compendium of Indian poetry. The book was years in the making and I am sure it will be around years for the taking.
But when I had gone over to interview Jeet’s father, the famous journalist and author, TJS George, an earlier guest on this show, Jeet gave me a copy of Names Of The Women. And it gave me the chills in a way that very few books…
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Feb 21, 2023
The Compelling Prose of Lynda Rutledge And West With Giraffes
It is said that you don’t rescue dogs. They rescue you. This saying reflects the connection we can have with our pets. Especially dogs, who are said to have had a relationship with humans for thousands of years.
When we adopt a dog, we think we're giving them a new lease on life, but in reality, they often give us so much more in return. Joy, comfort, companionship and a sense of purpose. They make us better humans. This idea of animals rescuing humans is the central theme in my guest Lynda Rutledge's brilliant novel, West with Giraffes.
The book follows the journey of Woodrow Wilson Nickel, or Woody, a seventeen-year-old boy who drove two giraffes cross-country from New York to the San Diego Zoo. This novel is based on a true story—events that happened in 1938. The two giraffes survive the high seas and braved a storm that almost killed them. Then they needed to be transported to the San Diego Zoo.
As Woody—and this travelling companion, the Old Man, navigate the challenges o…
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Feb 7, 2023
The World–A Family History With Simon Sebag Montefiore
*This interview was recorded live at Blossom Book House, Bangalore.*
Many years ago I saw a TV commercial that stuck with me. It showed a montage—sepia tinted portraits of older couples, with rather interesting last names:
Alois and Klara Hitler
Beso Jughashvili and Ekaterine Geladze (Josef Stalin’s parents)
Andruta and Marie Ceausescu (parents of Nikolai Ceausescu, the genocidal leader of Romania.)
And a few similar others. And then the punchline “If only these people had heard of Trojan condoms.”
This commercial spoke a truth—that families are involved and responsible for the good ones and the monsters alike.
We have heard much of the campaigns and conquests and cruelties of world leaders and we have read stories of incidents that might have influenced their growing years. But history is rather quiet on the roles their mothers played. Yes, what about Mom? How did Mom mess with their heads?
The most definitive record of this truth—that is the family’s role in histo…
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Dec 13, 2022
Karen Anand - The Culinary And Literary Adventures Of The Masala Memsahib
There’s something primal about watching food shows on TV. Or any food show. Even restaurants that have a glass pane through which you can watch the chefs in the kitchen doing their thing. It engages your attention while they ham it up. No that’s not a pun.
The business of someone setting about chopping up ingredients and turning them into masterful creations of art–truly subliminal and soul stirring to watch on the couch, while you eat instant noodles, unmindful of the irony.
I had no better example than when my partner and I had bought the kids in our apartment building a ton of firecrackers for Deepavali. They had great fun on the street. Suddenly, at 8pm, total silence. They were gone. Bags of fireworks lay unattended on the sidewalk, the starter candles drooping.
And where had all these pre-teen children gone? To watch Masterchef on TV.
For many of us, watching cooking shows or reading about food is a form of escapism. It transports us to far-off lands and exotic cuisines…
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Dec 6, 2022
To Hell And Back With Barkha Dutt
When the government exempted media from the lockdown, logically, this was to ensure that the media could do its job—which was to bring information and news to the people who were sequestered in their homes.
My guest today did just that. She is Barkha Dutt, one of India’s best known journalists. Barkha decided that she was going to bring information to the people. True to her wont, she did not do this by halves. She stepped out and travelled across the country with a small team of colleagues.
Over about three months, she with her team logged over 30,000 kms—that’s a shade under 19000 miles—travelling over surface in every available transport just to meet people.
Of course a tragedy like this brings out the best and the worst in people and Barkha was witness to all of it. Appropriately, her book is titled Humans Of Covid.
Everywhere she went, she logged the stories of the worst off among us. These stories are deeply human and capture the essence of how we cope when nature t…
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Nov 29, 2022
The Compelling Book Of Bihari Literature With A Poet-Diplomat Abhay K
The ability to write well used to be a necessary qualification for high office. Whether prose or poetry, literature was important as a tool of communication.
It all makes sense. The more skilled you are in the medium of instruction, the better the instruction. The highest thinkers of the realms were always great writers. The founding fathers of the USA—such as Benjamin Franklin and John Adams only to name two very good examples. They pursued letters and learning as a necessary part of their ability to create law and to govern effectively. Before them, we have learned of several of the ancient Greeks and Roman senators who were men of letters. And not to forget some famous Chinese emperors who wrote their edicts in verse.
The mandarins and panjandrums of yore morphed into the present day bureaucrat. Of particular relevance to us today, the diplomat.
My guest today is Abhay K. He is the Deputy Director General of the Indian Council For Cultural Relations. He was India’s Ambassador…
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Nov 22, 2022
The Amazing Reign Of Raja Raja Chola With Kamini Dandapani
There’s much interest of late about the Chola empire.
For many reasons. The reason that looms large is the recent blockbuster movie, Ponniyin Selvan, which, is all about the most famous of the Cholas, Raja Raja.
The Cholas were one of the longest running empires in history. The earliest historic references to the Cholas dates back to 300 BC and the empire was disestablished in 1279 AD. That’s just shy of 1600 years. By comparison the Mughal empire ran from 1526 - 1857—that’s under 350 years.
While the Indian region was invaded and occupied variously for thousands of years, the Cholas were significant in their thalassocratic—or maritime—escapades in South East Asia. Their trade routes extended to Guangzhou in China and the silk route on the other side.
They ruled the Maldives and Sri Lanka and clearly they knew where to sail to and where to fight.
And there was no greater time in all the Chola years than during the rule of Raja Raja Chozhan that ran from 985 to 1014, ab…
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Nov 15, 2022
Huma Abedin The Indomitable Peace Within
There’s something about Huma. Something happens a few seconds after you meet her. You fall in love with her.
Now, this immediate attraction is not for the typical reasons—of which admittedly there are many. And it has nothing to do with things like innate goodness, inner light and such other syrup. Well, I'm putting it down to some “cannot tell what it is x-factor” and I’m moving on.
My guest today is Huma Abedin. She works with Secretary Hillary Clinton. Huma is former Deputy Chief Of Staff of Hillary Clinton and at present, something even more central, I’m assuming.
Huma has worked with Hillary Clinton in this job for over 25 years. It isn't an easy job. I imagine that it would take not only a tough internal spirit, and a strong work ethic of course, but requires something more deeply intellectual to be able to comprehend the meaning of such a job and do it well.
It was not the simplest thing for Huma Abedin to have lived in the Venn diagram overlap of being BOTH an A…
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Nov 8, 2022
Jerry Pinto, His Muse And The Education Of Yuri
The way I read the book, the story is about the travails of a young Indian who must make the long and labyrinthine transition from boy to man.
A difficult job when a large offset of one's opportunities in middle class India is being beholden to family, with conservative family elders and conversations in a minefield of verbal taboos.
It is hard to hold down an adult conversation with elders—always an uncomfortable thing—and incurably hard to avoid.
To wit, when you are spoken to as a perennial child right into your adulthood, there is little scope for quiet and confident assertiveness and individualism. Personas must change to suit whatever pleases the current conversation.
And all this while there's the business of growing up to contend with. Sometimes so difficult a job that many don't ever fully make it to what might be considered manhood—at least by the the stereotypical norms of the rest of the world.
An ethic that is skilfully captured by my guest today the author, Jer…
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Nov 1, 2022
Winner of The Booker Prize 2022 Shehan Karunatilaka
There is an old saying, “Dead men tell no tales”.
But how wonderful and useful it would be if we could follow a conversation into the afterlife? And what more wonderful than if you wrote about it and then won the Booker Prize for your efforts? Is this the stuff from which dreams are made?
Clearly true if you consider my guest today, Shehan Karunatilaka, winner of the The Booker Prize 2022.
In Shehan’s novel, *The Seven Moons Of Maali Almeida*, the main protagonist is dead but the character is alive. The novel—set in a terrible patch of Sri Lankan history between 1983 and 1990—is the story of a photojournalist who dies. In the afterlife, he finds himself in the "In-between"—a state between "Down There" which is life on earth and "The Light"—and where that is, is revealed at the end of the book.
The protagonist is confronted by—of all things—a bureaucracy in the afterlife and he is told he has a week, or seven moons, to find out how he died if he wanted to make it t…
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Oct 25, 2022
TJS George And The Inevitability Of The Absurd
There is a point late in the lives of the very accomplished, when they unscrew the caps of their pens and write a compelling memoir of their lives.
But how does a self-effacing journalist write an autobiography? By not writing one. Not in the stock sense, anyway.
My guest today is journalist TJS George. He is 94 years old. His life as a working journalist began when he was 19. That was in 1947—in the months following India’s Independence. And ever since, George has had a ringside seat to India—and to every twist in its tale.
Journalists always have the best stories. After years of working their profession as a “little pitcher with big ears”—fly on the wall, if you prefer—they wait impatiently to fill the ears of the world with anecdotes.
But instead of all that, George’s latest book, “The Dismantling Of India”, is the closest we have got to an autobiography—unless, of course, he decides to up and write a classic memoir.
I read this book as a narrative history…
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Oct 18, 2022
How To Find Draupadi With Koral Dasgupta
In the Indian epic, the Mahabharata, the central character, the fulcrum of the story is Draupadi…in my view. But epics in mythology, the Mahabharata included, are full of tales of male valour. Mythology instills in its male protagonists, high chivalry. Men are always saving women.
But whenever women are warriors, they are usually fierce and angry, wreaking vengeful havoc everywhere. I haven’t read many historical or mythological stories of calm and collected women whose battle strategies were super-intelligent and saved a bunch of men.
Men, valour. Women, wrath. But from where do these messy notions spring?
From the stories we have been told. From subjective telling of history, the epics, folklore and mythology.
In the Mahabharata, we learned the story of how Yudhishtra gambled away his wife in a game of dice with his cousins and then sat back helplessly and humiliated while she was manhandled in the court. And then of course he went to war and avenged…I am not sure what he w…
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Oct 11, 2022
On The Journey To Ithaca With David Davidar
What and when was the first English language novel?
There are some contenders for this honour, but the most plausible for me would be Pamela by Samuel Richardson—first published in 1740 and several times since. Widely accepted as the first English novel, it is a racy, saucy, sexually-orientated story—and , of course, for that reason it was the world’s first bestseller.
In 1832, the first book covers started to happen. In America and Britain, these books, with designed covers, sold for a penny. They were largely the retelling of gothic horror stories. For that reason these books came to called Penny Dreadful.
A significant moment in the history of publishing was the advent of the American brothers Albert and Charles Boni, who started a mail-order publishing company. The pioneering efforts of Albert Boni resulted in the creation of the major publishing company , Random House—so called because they decided that their choice of published literature would be random by nature.
Th…
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Oct 4, 2022
The Conspiracy To Love Cubbon Park Bangalore With Roopa Pai
Different cities have different things they buy into.
In Paris there’s style—you never want to look sloppy in Paris. In New York it’s the energy of movement—try walking slowly on the sidewalk and you’ll have Fran Leibowitz come up and say "Hey! Pretend it’s a city."
In Bangalore, there is a buy-in to preserve trees.
You can ride a motorcycle on a crowded sidewalk, drive up the wrong way on a one-way street and only mildly annoy others. But try cutting a tree and the passing Bangalorean will give you a sharp look and probably make a quick call to the authorities. Indeed most homes have trees and apartment buildings are sometimes built around an existing tree. So Bangaloreans would not be surprised to see a new apartment building with a tree growing right through its floors.
This isn’t new though. Something about trees has found its way into the DNA of the city and indeed in all of us—after all in our DNA, we are part human, part city.
And the sense of greenery has e…
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Sep 27, 2022
In The Freedom Struggle On A Train To Tanjore With Devika Rangachari
The great author Gustav Flaubert once said, “The art of writing is the art of discovering what you believe."
I am not buying that entirely. I believe that the art of writing is to make others believe what you want them to believe.
And by that, I don’t mean only storytelling. I mean all writing. Direct and compelling prose can raise even the most academic and arcane subjects to literature.
Sometimes academicians couch their findings in thick and opaque prose—sometimes because they don’t know how to express themselves in a more comprehensible manner. You know, in simple sentences without using jargon as crutches.
Sometimes because they think they won’t be taken seriously if they expressed themselves in a less formal style.
And some of them are great writers and storytellers. So they go looking for an outlet for their creativity and happily some find it.
My guest today is author and historian, Devika Rangachari. Clearly, she found her muse. She is both versatile and prolif…
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Sep 20, 2022
John Zubrzycki And The Shortest History Of India
History was never considered to be a subject that would lead to gainful employment and I dare say, rewarding matrimony. Maybe that’s why we have paid little respect to it in India.
Maybe that’s why our records are shoddy. Most museums and public places of history are disrespectfully maintained—and shabby when compared to those in other countries.
Through the ages, the lasting history of India has been principally discovered and recorded by travellers from overseas—from Megasthenes in 300BC to Al Masudi in 950 to Thomas Roe in 1615 and then so many other illustrious people during and since.
And now, there is a sudden interest in Indian history.
Of the number of books that publishers send me to consider for this podcast, a great many are about Indian history—in one form or another.
This interest in Indian history I guess was kicked off by recent western historians—and the trend is carried forward by so many wonderful Indian historians and writers—each compelling, enter…
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Sep 13, 2022
The Art And The Realpolitik Of Mallika Sarabhai
Being raised by very famous parents has its benefits. But equally, it is difficult to emerge from their shadows in which one must twist, and then find a spot upstage—for one’s creativity.
Growing up in India in the 70s was materially different from what it seems to be today. Materially being the operative expression, because there was not much money to go around.
For example, it did not really matter what car you drove…because there wasn’t much choice of automobiles. I’ll spare you the litany of examples of what else you could not do. But the good thing was that there were other ways by which you gained respect in society. Being well educated well informed and well-spoken—this is the domain of the nerds.
In America nerds are objects of derision. In India, they favoured candidates for matrimony. We marry them on priority.
And in the time when regular middle income folks had no choice but to study hard and get a good job, being liberal towards one’s children was somethi…
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Sep 6, 2022
Wadiyar Of Mysore The Maverick Maharaja With Deepti Navaratna
Historically and traditionally, the arts have enjoyed the patronage of kings.
We all know that culture broadens minds. It’s an important basis by which society finds expression and happiness. So it is in the larger common good that culture has been encouraged. It binds a society and gives it an identity. And a personality. And sets up the basis for cultural interaction with other societies.
People like kings patronise the arts to allow its exponents the freedom to live in their minds and pursue their muse. Musicians, dancers, artists, dramatists and storytellers have enjoyed the patronage of the palace.
The Maharajas of Mysore—many of them—have pursued the arts themselves. The most notable among them being Jayachamarajendra Wadiyar—the last Maharaja of Mysore before his kingdom acceded to the Union of Indian states in 1947. He was a thinker, a published philosopher, a patron of the arts—but importantly, he, a patron without bias.
While there is a rich legacy of Carnatic m…
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Aug 30, 2022
Aasma-i-Noor The Cursed Jewel Of Indian History With Sudipta Sen Gupta
Every once in a while, you read a book, watch a gripping movie or a TV show; and you ask yourself the question, “Was that a true story?”
And then you spend hours googling the hell out of it. How great would it be if you could not find the answer and not be able to reach a conclusion!
As every great storyteller knows, the better you tell a story the more you make it come to life. Conversely, even if you tell a real story poorly, it will not ring true.
Let’s meet a great storyteller now.
My guest is author Sudipta Sen Gupta. She used to be a top level marketing executive turned academic, historian and author. Her debut novel is titled, Aasma-i-Noor. In Persian it loosely means A Sky of Light or even, a Universe of Light...depending on how expansive you’re feeling today.
Aasma-i-Noor is a diamond. It is a rare, red diamond that came from the Kollur mine in Golconda, the same mine that gave us the Koh-i-Noor (means Mountain Of Light) and Darya-i-Noor (meaning Sea Of Light). Al…
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Aug 23, 2022
The Literature Of The Middle Finger With Saikat Majumdar
Indians live in many skins.
We deal with an extraordinarily diverse and multi-layered thing that we call “Indian culture”.
There have been various attempts to reduce its complexities to something simple that represents the sum of its parts. Often, a fool’s errand, not easily expressed by say, a fondness for Bollywood and spicy food.
Such cultural differences are stark when we travel; not the differences with other cultures of the world—we always knew that—but but the cultural differences between Indians that we don’t notice so much at home.
Finding out that you have more in common with a western colleague than from an Indian from a different part of India with a different language, a different religion and different tastes in pop culture can be hard to articulate.
My guest today is Saikat Majumdar. His novel, The Middle Finger explores this dynamic with the insight and sensitivity of a perpetual student of the world.
At the story telling level, the novel is entertaini…
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Aug 16, 2022
A Journey To The Top Of The World With Chess Legend Viswanathan Anand
Chess is a finite game with finite variables. Yet, phrases like “infinite possibilities” and “unpredictable outcome” seem completely appropriate when discussing it.
It begs the question, how finite is finite? Finite can be a large number. So large that it may as well be infinite. For example, they have calculated that the number of possibilities in moves and resulting positions in the first 10 moves is a 14-digit number- 69,352,859,712,417. It's called the Shannon number. Yes, that’s finite. But not for some. I can’t count that high myself.
And then they say chess is the only game in the world without an element of chance. There’s no wind factor, no pitch whose inconsistencies make a ball wobble, no noisy and chanting spectators, no rain or being dealt a poor hand—there are two players and only they are responsible for the outcome.
But far from chess being robotic, the most important variable in chess is the human variable. But with humans all variables don’t have…
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Aug 9, 2022
One Crimson Spring Changed History. At Jallianwala Bagh With Navtej Sarna
No matter how many times you have heard it, the story of Jallianwala Bagh is terrifying. But when most of us first heard the story of the massacre, we weren’t mature enough to absorb the significance of what we were reading.
As schoolboys we were only allowed a casual and dinky relationship with our history text books. Jallianwala Bagh could pass as another tale of woe in chapter after chapter of bloody wars.
And it wasn’t until we were older and for many—let’s tell the truth here—watching the movie Gandhi—did the horror of it all come home.
My guest today is Navtej Sarna, author of Crimson Spring—in essence a book about the massacre at Jallianwala Bagh, but one that is more history than novel. It is a literary work that describes a historical tragedy through the emotions of its protagonists.
While reading his book, it struck me that we don’t preserve and portray the horrors of history in any tangible form, say, like the holocaust museums; Auschwitz and other locati…
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Aug 2, 2022
The Voices Of Trauma. Reliving The Partition With Kavita Puri
For those who might not know, when Pakistan was carved out of India to serve as a separate country for Muslims in the sub-continent, people on both sides—of a hasty defined border—found their lives uprooted.
The tales from the Partition are many and horrific. The stories expose the raw side of a humanity filled with hatred, with mobs red in tooth and claw setting upon each other. The announcement of Partition caused Hindu-Muslim violence to break out—some say unexpectedly.
Millions fled their homes in fear to cross the border to safety. Most of them had to leave their lives and all their possessions behind.
Some of them found a new home in England. They dug their heels in and got their lives back.
My guest today, Kavita Puri is a British journalist and a radio broadcaster. She is also the daughter of one of those who fled their homes. For many years now, Kavita has documented the oral histories of the immigrants from the Indian sub-continent, to a postwar Britain.
Her series…
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Jul 26, 2022
"Guest In Another's Land." The Remarkable Literature Of Omar El Akkad
What’s literary fiction?
It’s not easily defined. Maybe because literary fiction is not what it is but it isn’t. Essentially, it is fiction writing that does not fit into any genre. Like crime, romance, horror, science-fiction, and other what have you genres.
Another characteristic of literary fiction is that the story is driven by its protagonists or characters and not by a plot. It can speak of humanity, embrace a philosophy, dwell for pages on describing something that may well be inconsequential to the subject and indeed, stray very far from whatever plot or path it may have chartered for itself.
You read literary fiction for the journey you make from cover to cover. It’s not necessarily a whodunit, such that you get to the end only to find out that the butler didn’t.
For dint of its lack of conformity to genre, I reckon, literary writing is considered an art form and therefore an idealistic higher form. So does it follow that genre based literature is somehow mass me…
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Jul 19, 2022
Are Translations The Next Big Thing? Inside The Craft Of Kalyan Raman
Recently Indian author, Geetanjali Shree's book Tomb Of Sand, won the Rest Of The World version of the Booker Prize.
In literary circles—as indeed with other circles—awards and prizes always set off ripples of envy and carping. The cynical argument is that prizes are geared to triggering interest in markets—in this case, I presume, to sell more books. I haven’t done a deep dive into this but it makes for great coffee shop mulch.
So, whether by honest practice or by greasy marketing, a Booker win means much to the industry and in the case of Tomb Of Sand I dare say, it will trigger the gold rush of translations.
So are translations the next big thing?
My guest today, Kalyan Raman is no translation newbie. He has translated the works of some of the best known writers from Tamil into English. I have known him for many years. He is a scientist with a literary side. He worked in the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) as a satellite communications engineer.
His first subs…
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Jul 12, 2022
The Joy Of Breaking Free With Vaasanthi. Her Life, Her Writing. And Her Muse
In one of his dispatches from the front lines, in North Africa during WW2, Ernest Hemingway wrote this about Italian soldiers. When these soldiers were slightly injured, they would proclaim loudly, swearing undying loyalty to Il Duce—Mussolini. But when they were mortally wounded and lay dying on the battlefield, they would forget all about Mussolini. Instead, they would invoke their mothers. “Mamma mia,” they said softly, of their fate.
In one of many vivid descriptions in Vaasanthi’s book, Cut-outs, Caste and Cine Stars—a book about a recent period in Tamil Nadu politics—she describes a parade that honored the chief minister and matinee idol, MG Ramachandran. One float in particular, was pulled by an MGR fan, with ropes attached by hooks to the man’s bare and bleeding back.
But that was an exception, Vaasanthi said. She wrote, and I quote, "But on the whole MGR fans prefer to flatter than to suffer."
Vaasanthi’s prose is replete with such observations.
Vaasanthi f…
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Jul 5, 2022
Untold Intrigues Of Charles Sobhraj And Fragments Of Farrukh Dhondy
Most know who Charles Sobhraj is.
But even if he has become something of a legend, Sobhraj was—by many accounts—a thief and murderer after petty gains. And not an international crook engaged in high profile art and diamond heists. Nor an international arms dealer whose shenanigans get the collective underwear of nations in a twist.
Or was he?
My guest today—the renowned writer, Farrukh Dhondy—spent considerable time with Charles Sobhraj. Farrukh’s descriptions of those meetings resulted in his latest book, Hawk and Hyena. The book reveals aspects of Sobhraj’s life— that of an opportunist...a wannabe businessman. One of those guys we have all met—a person of indeterminate skill and dodgy provenance, never peddling the same thing twice.
Importantly, the book raises a startling and surprising question—did Charles Sobhraj hold the key to a potentially unpalatable truth—that maybe Sadaam Hussein did have weapons of mass destruction after all?
In a similar question,…
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Jun 21, 2022
The Romance Of Rani Jindan —The Last Queen By Chitra Divakaruni
The more experienced writers are aware that the hardest thing to do is to write without trying to be clever.
Some writers are born to coruscating prose. And then there are those who can entertain readers without having to use words like...coruscating.
My guest today—Chitra Divakaruni— is such a writer.
Reading Chitra is like traveling in a car with an excellent suspension—you don’t feel the potholes. Or maybe that’s because there are no potholes in her prose.
Her writing is not only honest, sincere and without artifice, but also vivid. So vivid that film makers seem to be falling about making movies out of everything she writes. The Mistress Of Spices—starring Dylan McDermott and Aishwarya Rai—is one famous example. Sister Of My Heart was turned into a TV show in Tamil called Anbulla Snegitheiye (Beloved Friend).
Her stories have been turned into movies, plays, even opera.
To say that Chitra Divakaruni’s prose is romantic or evocative is to fall to spewing platitu…
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Jun 14, 2022
Born A Muslim By Ghazala Wahab Introspective Quest And Questions
A very interesting study at Hebrew University found that the brain inflates numbers under some circumstances. University psychologists called this a “diversity illusion”.
Israelis and American students were asked to assess the size of minorities—Arabs and African Americans—among them. In both cases, people believed there were far more people from the minority than there actually were.
Researchers concluded that this is due to the mind’s tendency to focus on and amplify that which is out of the ordinary.
In one experiment Jewish students estimated the percentage of Arabs in the student body at 31% and Arab students said, 35%. Only 12% of students were Arab.
A similar experiment with American participants about the number of African American faces in a grid of 100 photographs yielded similar results—40% against 25%.
To be sure they ran the tests again and again, same results. I ran this test at home with a European house guest—exactly the same result.
Psychologists co…
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Jun 7, 2022
Laura Murphy On Violence, A Murder And How The Slaves Of Azad Nagar Won Their Freedom
Forty years ago, in 1982, two young men broke into the New Delhi home of an Indian Member of Parliament—and they held him and four others — hostage for several hours. The pistol packing hostage taker, Ram Narayan wanted to bring attention to the misfortunes of exploited coal miners in a nearby state.
Ram Narayan carried pamphlets of a manifesto he titled “Violence Is A Historical Necessity” and in it he underlined the Marxist-Leninist opinion that "No serious student of history will deny that certain historical situations render violence ineluctable."
It is commonly known that the poorest labourers in rural India are exploited. So exploited that in many cases they are, quite practically, slaves.
Sometimes a more sanitized expression is used for slavery—indentured labour. But that only suggests that the labourers work all their lives for free, usually for someone to whom they are indebted, typically because they have taken a loan that can never be reasonably repaid.
So, th…
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May 31, 2022
Finding The Bebop With Jazz Writer Scott Yanow
My guest today is Scott Yanow—one of the best known and most prolific jazz reviewers.
Writing about jazz is special, because of the dynamic and fluid nature of the music. There is a basic melody in jazz…but only to begin with. The musicians, in their solos, interpret that melody and its underlying harmonic structure.
And always, and without exception, that interpretation is different every time a jazz soloist plays.
Here’s an analogy for jazz beginners.
Classical music, for instance, is like a play. The lines are written for the actors, who must use their skill to bring out the drama in the lines. But it’s always the same lines, the same words.
Jazz is like scintillating conversation. You don’t say the same thing twice—for the sake of your friends I hope you don’t. And how interesting you are depends on how much you know, and how well you say it.
So, you see what I mean when I say that writing jazz reviews merits its own skill.
Speaking of skill, Scott Yanow has au…
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May 24, 2022
Shrabani Basu On Why Queen Victoria Loved Abdul Karim And How Conan Doyle Saved A Parsee Lawyer
A few years ago, I went to a movie theatre in New York City’s Chelsea, a theatre that screens indie films, to watch this new movie, Victoria & Abdul. It is a story of how Abdul Karim, a servant to Victoria, who was then Queen of England, came to be her closest confidant. A touching tale.
After the movie, in the foyer, I overheard one woman asking her friend in a most puzzled tone, “Is that what the museum in London is called? Victoria and...Abdul?!” “No dear,” her friend replied and set her straight on the correct name, "it’s Victoria and Albert Museum, dear."
The title of the movie is based on the book of the same name by my guest today, author, journalist and most definitely, historian, Shrabani Basu.
Shrabani has the almost uncanny ability to find a story where others did not and spend years researching it. Such as the story about a Parsee lawyer in pre-WW1 England, George Edalji, who was accused of murdering horses.
Now, who among us has not lived in 221B Baker Stre…
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May 17, 2022
Advaitha, Social Politics And A Romance With Pavan Varma
My guest today is Pavan Varma. He is Vice President of the All India Trinamool Congress, a former member of Parliament, former Press Secretary to the President of India, and as a career diplomat, former Ambassador to Bhutan and Indian High Commissioner, Cyprus.
But above all, in my book, he is an author of substance. A historian, he has authored over a dozen books that are treatises in literature, philosophy, socio-political thought and commentary.
An early book of his was The Great Indian Middle Class, a book that influenced my thinking substantially.
Two of his recent books are candidates for any thinking person’s bookshelf—one about the great Indian sage, Adi Shankaracharya and the other, The Great Hindu Civilisation: Achievement, Neglect, Bias and the Way Forward. I say thinking person’s bookshelf because the books enable anyone interested in exploring the Hindu philosophical premise or their Hindu identity and do it without submitting to gonzo politics and mindless jingoi…
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May 10, 2022
Finding The Indian Voice In English Literature With Poile Sengupta
In the late 80s, the Indian voice in English literature started to be heard in a meaningful way.
But in the early days, the writing was criticized as being imitative of colonial English, swollen and bloated, and not keeping up with contemporary usage.
Either that, or it swung the other way to bring a self-referential rebellion against colonialism with cringe-worthy caricatures of Indian English. While this Quixotic legacy—of grammar, structure and the idiom being the casualty of a war without an enemy—hasn’t entirely left us.
But as a wise man never ever said, through this fustian thicket Indian voices peeped. New authors threw away the sola topee, and started to write in English, the narrative being Indian; with neither apology nor explanation for parlance.
My guest today, Poile Sengupta is one of the first such writers. From her debut in the mid-80s, she has widely and well…written prose, poetry and plays.
While Poile is both respected and reputable, I believe she has no…
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May 3, 2022
Bringing Grammar To Spirituality With Poet Arundhathi Subramaniam
There is no easy definition of spirituality.
There certainly is no dictionary definition of it.
So I decided to make sport of finding how different people defined spirituality. But every explanation I found was merely another shade of grey. No one really could honestly define it.
I suspect that spirituality should be seen, not as a word but rather, as something that ranges from the metaphysical to the paranormal.
But my guest today, Arundhathi Subramaniam, has embarked on a more difficult mission—writing about it.
As a poet and a writer of succinct prose, she offers us a window into her lasting—and perhaps growing—sense of spirituality.
Her ability to write on this undefinable subject is an impressive skill. A skill that enables her to corral the many wayward strands of spirituality into something we can all understand—introspection.
In this episode I also dive into something else that defies me. What’s poetry?
Arundhathi Subramaniam recites three of her poems in this…
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Apr 26, 2022
Factors And Fibonacci On The Golden Road With William Dalrymple
I will admit that until I had read William Dalrymple, I knew little of the history of Delhi, which is inextricable from the history of India.
Although I lived in New Delhi for eight years, all I ever knew about the history of India—my country—was what was taught to me by middle school history teachers. They regurgitated dry passages from textbooks.
There was no romance in the way we were taught history.
So when I lived in Delhi—right in the heart of visible history with crumbling moments and all—I couldn’t get past those apathetic and uncurious history text books.
And then I left Delhi to move to Bangalore.
And then Dalrymple happened. In the decades that he unravelled Delhi for me, it morphed from a city that I only knew as too expensive for my modest salary, to a city that hell, had djinns in it. Djinns with a D.
The more I listened to William Dalrymple as I interviewed him today, the more I appreciated his sentient feel for history. A feeling that makes humans out of…
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Apr 19, 2022
Brevity, Bio Physics And The Short Story With Indira Chandrasekhar
Almost every famous author—Hemingway, Virginia Woolf, Toni Morrison, Marquez and many before and after them—has written memorable short stories.
The short story has long been celebrated as an important part of literature, and in my view any effort to defend it as such is unnecessary.
My guest today is Indira Chandrasekhar—a writer of short stories. She is also a scientist and the editor of Out Of Print, a literary magazine.
I have known Indira for many years. We were in college in Bangalore, at about the same time. But the similarity ends there.
Indira made something of college. She went on to a doctorate in science and became a bio-physicist, like Jagdish Chandra Bose or James Watson.
But evidently, she likes what I do, more.
So she quit messing with membranes and macromolecules and about 12 years ago, she started a literary magazine called Out Of Print.
Out Of Print is published once in three months, online. Each issue carries fewer than 10 short stories, with a focus on…
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Apr 12, 2022
The Fortuitous Rise Of Sanjoy K Roy And The Jaipur Literature Festival
The reason I use the word fortuitous in the title of this episode of The Literary City is because Sanjoy K Roy, one of the founders of the Jaipur Literature Festival…let’s call it JLF, like everyone else…told me that its success was an accident.
Some say there are no accidents. You know, you dinged your dad’s car because you were careless…and not because the fates conspired to override your otherwise cautious and attentive demeanour.
Typically, people become successful because of their efforts—not despite them. Usually you will find that what we ascribe to luck included a great deal of knowledge, foresight and a gust of planning. As a wise man once ought to have said, the harder you work, the luckier you get yadda...yadda...
Now, JLF has editions all over the world, and—as a foot note to the flagship—its parent company Teamworks Arts handles several more events every year.
But Sanjoy Roy is my guest on The Literary City today because I want to establish that someone…
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Apr 5, 2022
The Fabulous Rajas—Last Shakespeareans Of Bangalore
In old Bangalore, when you drove past the airport on the largely deserted road towards the suburb of Whitefield, was a farm, with trees and chickens and stuff that farms have.
It was owned by a couple whose voices were instantly recognizable as the principal voices of the English language stage in Bangalore—Arundhati and Jagdish Raja. Their farm was called Jagriti.
Today, the road is far from deserted and in the place of the farm, stands a theatre. A beautiful auditorium, in what should be described as a centre for all things cultural and literary.
The theatre retains the name of the old farm, Jagriti, but if there are any chickens there, I dare say, they aren’t running free on the range.
I call Arundhati and Jagdish Raja the Last Shakespeareans of Bangalore.
But now, who is a Shakespearean? Some people ask.
I mean who among us doesn’t know what ‘Platonic’ and ‘Aristotelian’ and ‘Einsteinean’ mean, but what's Shakespearean?
To me, anyone who has read a few play…
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Mar 29, 2022
The Prose Of Protest And The Suppressed Smile With Aakar Patel
About two decades ago I offered Aakar Patel a job as editor of Explocity. And just when we were all set, the famous and reputable newspaper in Mumbai, Mid-Day, offered Aakar a job as Editor and…well, of course I understood. If he had not accepted that job I would have forced him to.
But you know what they say… when one editorial door closes and another…oh the hell with the analogies… I heard that Tushita Patel, Aakar’s partner, was leaving her job as Editor of The Asian Age. I called her and she hopped a flight to Bangalore and joined Explocity as Editor and totally killed.
Twenty years later, I am fortunate to count them both as friends. And not principally because they make fried fish with that mustard thang.
Now, anyone with even a peripheral interest in Indian politics ought to know Aakar Patel.
And even though newspapers around the country have recently developed new and deeper shades of funk by not continuing to publish Aakar’s anti-injustice polemic, he remains I…
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Mar 22, 2022
Bandleaders In Zanzibar And Chronicles Of The Goan Diaspora With Selma Carvalho
Even a mildly curious glance at any of the millions of communities of migrant people the world over will yield something interesting.
The Goans of India, are one such. They are a fun and likeable lot as far as most of us can tell. We know them by their state, Goa—a dream vacation destination for many—and their seeming love of life, which is synonymous with a state of bliss—they even have a word for that.
And don’t get me started on their feni. I fondly remember commencing my descent into bottles of Goa’s finest but, for some reason, not what happened after.
Those were my happy drinking days. I haven’t touched a drop to drink for over 20 years now as I stew, in abstemious contemplation of my navel.
Goans have been an adventurous people. Sea-faring and peripatetic, while they migrated to every continent, mainly in search of better livelihoods.
All tales of migrant people always have some surprises.
A Goan becoming an accountant in Muscat, Oman might not be much of a sto…
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Mar 15, 2022
The Asanas Of Love, Hate And Mills & Boon With Milan Vohra
The most difficult prose to write is the prose that is easiest to read.
Writing on weighty matters is easy, if you are well-informed on those weighty matters.
But any honest writer will admit—in a cloud of envy laced with a silver lining of admiration—that supermarket paperbacks such as whodunits and stories for kids are exceptionally difficult to write.
Even more difficult are potboiler romances.
My guest today is Milan Vohra—a writer, to be admired for this reason.
About 10 years ago, she was the author of the first Mills & Boon romance to be authored by an Indian. This was no easy achievement.
For years, Mills & Boon has had its principally female-readership in its thrall. Several women have described these romances as a rite of passage sort of thing. It starts around the coming of age. And does not stop.
Of course, curious men have immersed themselves discreetly in these romantic novels…and sadly, learned nothing.
Milan’s writing is not fluffy and sugary. Her writ…
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Mar 8, 2022
The Suresh Menon Guide To Assassination And Lesser Forms Of Literary Criticism
The largely unspoken reason why so many people believe good grammar is a thing to diss, is because speaking English well is associated with privilege—the better you speak it, the more likely from privilege you must be.
Shaw's Pygmalion was vitally devoted to illustrating class distinctions by language; My Fair Lady, its pithy, entertaining adaptation.
To excuse the incorrect use of grammar, some others say that language is a mutable thing and the rules of grammar should, and did, change with time. If this were true, it would not explain why there is zero tolerance for bad grammar and syntax in writing and reportage in most languages other than English.
Politics—and excuses for one's shoddiness aside—there is the celebration of expression.
Literary writing uses nuance and the subtlety of words and phrases to celebrate thoughts and ideas. In the culinary analogy, literary writers might choose one word over another for a soupçon of meaning—in the same way that a good chef mig…
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Mar 1, 2022
Hamartia, Comma, Hubris, Comma, And The Literary Laws Of Aditya Sondhi
In this episode we spend quite a bit of time examining the comma.
This, the smallest of literary squiggles, is also the most important of all squiggles.
Not using a comma correctly could have serious implications - it could change the meaning of a sentence. It's one thing when that happens in daily life. Quite another in courts; a misplaced or missing comma could have serious legal implications.
In 2006, a dispute in Canada over a comma in a 14 page long contract in a telecom case resulted in a cost of 1 million Canadian dollars.
In another case, in the state of Maine in the United States, delivery drivers of the Oakhurst Dairy, were in a legal spat with their employers for overtime. The U.S. Court of Appeals determined that Maine’s overtime law was grammatically ambiguous, and for that reason, the drivers won the appeal.
The offending sentence was this: "The canning, processing, preserving, freezing, drying, marketing, storing, packing for shipment or distribution of: <...their…
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Feb 22, 2022
Twisting In PJ O'Rourke's Shadow
We pause in our interviews and other segments in this episode, to pay tribute to a brilliant mind of our times—writer, satirist and brilliant wit, PJ O'Rourke.
In this episode, Ramjee Chandran talks about how PJ O'Rourke influenced his writing more than any other literary figure has. And rues that he missed the opportunity to meet and interview him.
There would be no need to explain why anyone would emulate PJ O'Rourke—man, author and analyst.
From being a gonzo journalist in National Lampoon, the wackiest publication of all time (it even out-wacky'd MAD magazine) to becoming a respected political analyst, O'Rourke's career took interesting turns.
Only the most capable among us would be able to fashion a life and earn a living from what we want to do, and not what we have to do.
Only O'Rourke's unusual approach to analytical reportage and his extremely popular wit, could have given him the leeway to get editor to allow him—and fund him—to do the stories he wanted to do. Th…
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Feb 15, 2022
Rubi Chakravarti Battles Bigotry With Bluster And A Beatific Smile
The most enduring mnemonic of theatre is the twin masks of happy and sad. Comedy is Yin to Tragedy’s Yang. The most enduring vision of the Side B of a comedian’s personality is the sad mask. We have all heard the stories; we all wear those twin masks every day.
When we are all done with the predictable platitudes of lemons and lemonades, we are all in the realpolitik. But women have additional battles to fight in this realpolitik.
And when you are an entertainer, your workplace is the stage under a spotlight, a barely attentive and unforgiving audience are your workplace colleagues, and your battles are more real; where acclaim and criticism mix with misogyny and you can't tell one from another.
But my guest today, actor-comedian Rubi Chakravarti, wants none of this sad sack business. Rubi’s funny side seems to have emerged from a happy place. Either that or she has made whatever she had into a happy place.
Explocity first encountered Rubi when she was playing a role in a pla…
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Feb 8, 2022
Across The Universe With Douglas Adams And Bruce Lee Mani
How many of us stop to consider how much rock music owes to literature?
Many of rock or folk lyricists of the 60s and 70s (and into the later years) were very well read. Many were students of English literature.
Here are a few examples.
Jim Morrison was a published poet. Chris Martin of Coldplay mastered Greek and Latin, Sterling Morrison, a Ph.D. in Medieval Literature, Rivers Cuomo graduated from Harvard University in English, Jeff Schroeder, Ph.D in Comparative Literature at UCLA.
A couple of honourable mentions:
Brian May of Queen, Ph.D. in Astrophysics, Art Garfunkel a master’s in Math, Tom Morello of Rage Against The Machine graduated from Harvard in Political Science.
And then there were songs inspired by Literature:
Wuthering Heights by Kate Bush based on the book by Emily Bronte. Pigs by Pink Floyd was inspired by George Orwell’s 1984 as was Testify by Rage Against The Machine. White Rabbit by Jefferson Airplane was a shout out, obviously, to Alice in Wonderland. Sy…
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Feb 1, 2022
Shakespeare, Joan Didion And Amrita Shah Walk Into A Bar. And, "No Loos In Texas".
Most, if not all of us, who studied English in school will recognize the opening passage in the podcast…which are the opening lines from Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar. Ol' JC was in the curriculum.
That passage is a favourite of my guest on this latest episode of my podcast , journalist and author, Amrita Shah.
She says she picked that one to read, for its humour.
When I was in my late 20s I was burning to write for a national publication. My target was… let’s call it “the Gentleman’s magazine”… Debonair.
Debonair was India’s Playboy. You read it for the articles. No seriously. You did.
Debonair—by design—had some of the most literary writing in the country. I figured that if I was published by Debonair, it would improve my street cred.
But what could be more WOKE back then than the fact that Debonair had a woman as editor. And that was Amrita Shah.
I wrote goofy sexual humor pieces for her that I thought were witty. Happily, so did she. I'm assuming...becaus…
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Jan 25, 2022
The Utterly Urbane Autobiography Of Mahesh Dattani. And How Do You Break A Leg?
The famous Alyque Padamsee said that Mahesh Dattani "...had given 60 million English-speaking Indians an identity."
Padamsee's trenchant comment holds much in store.
Most Indians who were educated in English became—through literature mostly—comfortable in our bilingual skin; multilingual, even. And Indian at heart.
In India, English is not merely a functional tool for administration and management for many. It is lingua franca for a number of urban Indians...a first language, while the mother tongue remains the language in which we best express our emotions.
But because entertainment, such as theatre, is an emotional vector, Indian languages flourished as the principle vehicles for stories.
Sometime in the 70s, Mahesh marvelled as a Prithvi Theatre audience connected easily, sensitively—and vocally—with a regional language play. Mahesh Dattani's audiences had connected with his productions...but only intellectually, not with the emotion and feeling they reserved for the la…
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Jan 18, 2022
The Importance Of Being Seated Opposite Oscar Wilde And The Love Story In Wordle
If there is, at all, succession in life cycles, Prasad was a child of the Roaring Twenties. And not— as many might fall to wrongly assume—a lapsed constituent of the flower power years of the 60s, nor of the decade of anti-establishment protest that was the 70s.
Free of dogma, and always curious about where style is headed next, Prasad Bidapa is Downton Abbey meets The Devil Wears Prada.
Most people of talent communicate naturally. They use words, sometimes pictures and sometimes fashion; sometimes all of the above. Prasad is a writer, an incessant reader and a sponge to contemporary style.
In this episode, Ramjee Chandran talks to Prasad about his affinity for Oscar Wilde, the eclecticism in his reading and his curiosity for the movement in popular culture.
Prasad talks about education and the experiences he shares with wife Judy in parenting their children, *Aviva Bidapa* (see Instagram), a designer rising in popularity, and son Adam, who runs a homestay in the pretty hamlet…
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Jan 11, 2022
How To Hurl A Critic With Great Force. Also Bodice Ripper Romances.
Anita Nair is one of India's best known authors, whose books have been translated variously and widely, into many languages and across the world.
Anita and Ramjee Chandran talk about literary critics with some funny examples of the acerbic wit that gives a knowledgeable and competent literary critic the right to "biting sarcasm". Anita is candid about her reaction to receiving a bad review.
Ramjee talks about what makes Anita Nair special. Her work ethic. Her training as an advertising copywriter and importantly, her sense of romance.
To us (Explocity) Anita is not only lovely and charming, but special. She is one of our earliest columnists going back to the late 90s. Her column "The Economical Epicurean" was her earliest effort at writing about food.
In this episode, Anita also talks about her mentoring program, "Anita's Attic". Aspiring writers looking to find their muse, and potentially their Mammon, can apply to become one of her pigeons. The next season of Anita's Attic is com…
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Jan 4, 2022
When Schubert Met Shakespeare. And Spilling The Beans About Coat-tails
What do you ask a guy who is one of the country's foremost classical pianists, a Shakespeare fanboi, a theatre company founder and now, an actor on a Netflix series?
Well, Ramjee Chandran asks Preetam Koilpillai everything.
In a fun, laughter-speckled interview, they discuss the problems with stilted education methods and the snobbery surrounding western classical music, which is why Koilpillai will not wear coat-tails and a bowtie in a performance.
In a double header, Preetam Koilpillai performs Schubert's Impromptu No 2 in Eb and he recites Shylock's speech from Merchant of Venice, exclusively for The Literary City.
WHAT'S THE WORD - "SPILL THE BEANS"
Co-host Pranati "Pea" Madhav joins Ramjee Chandran in the segment titled "What Was That Word?", or titled whatever Ramjee wants it to be titled. They dive into the usage and etymology of "SPILL THE BEANS". And—inspired by Preetam Koilpillai—"coat-tails".
If you have a word, expression or phrase you would like to know more about…
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Jan 4, 2022
Arm Wrestling Women At Koshy's. And What's A "Duffer"?
As everybody knows, the principal measure of gender equality is arm wrestling. Our guest on the show today is well-known actor and TV boss, Darius "Tuffy" Taraporvala. Tuffy handles his roles easily, whether he's playing a petulant Mozart, a clueless spy Bernard Boursicot, caught in his honey trap with Shi Pei Pu, a Peking opera singer or one of the Marx Brothers. Ramjee Chandran peels the layers off Tuffy in a fun, freewheeling interview.
THE WORD - "DUFFER"
Co-host Pranati "Pea" Madhav joins Ramjee Chandran in the segment, titled "What Was That Word?" or titled whatever the host wants it to be titled. They dive into the usage and etymology of "duffer". Heaven knows there are so many of those who plague us every day.
If you have a word, expression or phrase you would like to know more about, we would love to have you join us live on the show.
You can reach out to us by mail: theliterarycity@explocity.com or simply, tlc@explocity.com. Or, you can visit our Facebook group: https://www.…
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Dec 8, 2021
Trailer
Explocity Podcasts presents The Literary City With Ramjee Chandran. This podcast is devoted to words—written, spoken or signed. Words rule everything...song lyrics, a movie script, a play, prose, poetry or a podcast. We will feature readers and writers, publishers, people of prose and poetry and playwrights. The Literary City podcasts will feature English language teachers, grammar police, literary lounge lizards...and, oh yes, a cunning linguist or ten.
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