Via Sree Sreenivasan

“I definitely have a faith, it's internalized.”

Read Vibhuti Patel‘s in-depth interview with photographer Dinesh Khanna about his latest book project – Living Faith. The introduction to Khanna's book on India's faiths is written by the well-known travel writer, Pico Iyer.

Several years ago, I noticed Khanna's coffee table book, Bazaar. Despite having lived in India for 12 years, I was moved and somewhat surprised by the liberal use of color in India. Somehow, just as everything seems to work amidst the apparent chaos that is India, swathes of different hues gel together amicably in the end.

Via Eclecticism

Want to link your psyche to a famous novel? Take this online Book Quiz.

This is apparently who I am:

You're Siddhartha !
by Hermann Hesse

You simply don't know what to believe, but you're willing to try anything once. Western values, Eastern values, hedonism and minimalism, you've spent some time in every camp. But you still don't have any idea what camp you belong in. This makes you an individualist of the highest order, but also really lonely. It's time to chill out under a tree. And realize that at least you believe in ferries.

Via Sreenath Sreenivasan

South Asian Journalists Association (SAJA) and South Asian Women's Creative Collective (SAWCC) present a reading by Samina Ali, author of Madras On Rainy Days at Maharaja Restaurant, 230 East 44th Street, between 2nd & 3rd Avenues on Thursday, February 12, 2004.

Reception at 6.30 pm, following by reading and q&a 7.00-8.30 p.m. $5 for SAJA and SAWCC members, $7 for non-members. Working journalists interested in interviewing Samina can contact her publicist Sarita Varma.

Madras On Rainy Days is a striking novel from a new voice in fiction – the first Muslim Indian woman to be published in the U.S. A. – Samina Ali. Set against the backdrop of the ancient city of Hyderabad and mounting Hindu-Muslim tensions, the novel lyrically evokes the complexities of life behind the chador.

Ali's own experience as woman raised in both the U.S. and in India who must balance the complicated mix of western freedom with Muslim tradition closely mirrors that of her protagonist, Layla. Like her main character, Ali reluctantly agreed to an arranged marriage only to find her mate had comprised something as well – his sexual freedom. In Madras On Rainy Days, she deftly explores the taboo of homosexuality within the Indian Muslim community, as well as the conflicts over freedom of thought and expression that many modern Muslims face.

Samina Ali has written a wonderful, wrenching family story. While it begins in the traditional moral dilemma of whether to submit to an arranged marriage, the story progresses in ways that challenge every stereotype and expectation we might put upon it. The novel deepens with each revelation as her young narrator discovers the truth about the home she left behind and learns the true character of the people who supposedly love her. In the end, she is left with the messy beauty of a real life, one that can't be categorized or controlled, only embraced.

Po Bronson, author of What Should I Do with My Life?

With her debut novel, Madras On Rainy Days, Samina Ali makes a bold entrance on the scene of American immigrant literature. Ali is a compelling storyteller. In language that is at once lyrical and unsentimental, she explores both the upside and the downside of being a first generation Muslim Indo-American woman, trapped between the demands of competing cultural heritages. This is a must read for anyone interested in understanding the multicultural fabric of contemporary America.

Bharati Mukherjee, author of Desirable Daughters

In this beautifully written and fully realized first novel by Samina Ali, a Muslim Hyderabadi wedding serves to illuminate the gulf between the Muslim world and America while also bridging that gulf with the heartbreaking story of how one young Muslim girl becomes a woman. Madras On Rainy Days covers the full spectrum of human conflicts and joys: betrayal, cruelty, despair, and yes–the possibility of redemption and
hope.

About the Author

Samina Ali was born in Hyderabad and was raised there and in the Minneapolis/St Paul area. She received her M.F.A. from the University of Oregon. She lives in San Francisco with her son.

The November rains prickled the humid air. The aroma of sand, recently kissed by a downpour, wafted through Rita Saldanha's delicately decorated apartment. “My son Ajit is flying in from Singapore,” beamed Mrs. Saldanha. Indeed a fourth place setting graced the dinner table. Not too long after we sat down to eat lunch, the door bell clanged.

Ajit and I met almost 20 years ago. When he walked in partially soaked and furiously wiping his brow with a handkerchief, I had to admit to myself that I couldn't recognize him at all. My last memory of him, I offered, was when Arun, his younger brother, invited me and a gaggle of pre-teens to their Kilpauk Garden Colony home for a party. Ajit rode away on a motobike and was the subject of much speculation.

The drizzle outside continued unabated. As a plate of macaroons made its way around the table, Ajit loudly lamented the inefficiencies at the airport. “Shit, I can't believe how difficult they make it for international passengers to transfer to the domestic terminal.” But when he actually saw humor in it, and we had all had a good laugh the ice was broken.

I was intrigued by what he had been up to all these years. What I had missed was Ajit's penchant for writing. Not as a novelist or a journalist, but as a columnist for Mid Day, a newspaper out of Mumbai.

“Whether you like it or not, when you are saddled with the tag of a humour writer, then you can't deviate from it by an iota.”

Out now is a collection of these columns in a book called Hung By My Family Tree. Clutching an advance copy of the book in one hand and a cigarette in the other, Ajit, with some justified pride announced the book would be published by the end of the year. I convinced him to send me a couple of copies. I have been reading it and I promise you, your belly will ache from laughter. While Mangloreans, or Mangies, bear the special brunt of his pen (he is one himself), in reality no one is spared. His book readings have garnered him a loyal following and the reviews have been glowing.

Aakar Patel, the editor of Mid Day says this about Ajit:

Ajit Saldanha is Henry Mencken without the politics and the crime. His prose is aimed unerringly at the maudlin and the ridiculous, which he picks up and inspects with the gravity of a social scientist. He derives much joy from his experiences and has the rare ability to telegraph that joy to his audience.

Underlying the jokes and the irreverent approach to his subjects, it's Ajit's social commentary that makes this book such a pleasure to read. Curious how Indian culture has evolved over the last twenty years? Read the book. Written entirely in jest, at the very crux of his writing is this hope – that we all learn to laugh at ourselves. Priced modestly at Rs. 395, this book is published by IndTeleSoft and is only available in India.

And so, if I were to change one thing, it would be to make the book available through Amazon.com, or some other international distribution outlet. I know you would want to get your hands on a copy.

HUNG BY MY FAMILY TREE by Ajit Saldanha

PRATEEK SWAIKA
The Asian Age
10 Jan 2004

There's trying-but-still-far-from-it funny, there's almost funny, and then there's Ajit Saldanha's Hung by My Family Tree. Recently launched at the Intercontinental Grand by Salman Khursheed, Saldanha's debut collection of
short stories guarantees a laugh. Consistently cocky, perpetually prurient and witty without exception, Hung by My Family Tree offers its slant on topics as dissimilar (or alike) as ‘Catching Crabs' and ‘Penis Dialogues'.
Almost as an apology, Saldanha says, “Initially, I told myself that I wouldn't write about men trying to cook or sexist stuff and painful pieces about my dog or my kid. But I suppose sometimes I have broken my own rules!”
And how does he manage to get new things to write about? “During the week, I sometimes try out the spine of the column on some people and then, if it provokes a response, I go with it. Whether you like it or not, when you are saddled with the tag of a humour writer, then you can't deviate from it by an iota,” he adds.

As an extensive elaboration of his columns that have previously appeared in The Midday , the one hundred and twenty short stories written by Saldanha span over almost 650 sprightly pages. And with Indian satire generally
restricted to the comic pages, Hung by My Family Tree promises to be a hit amongst Non-Resident Indians (or as Saldanha cocks his snook – Newly Returned Indians). However, the author's needle sharp observations and
penetrating insights into the antics of the ‘jet-set lot', and uncannily accurate phonetic imitations of Italian, Thai, and ‘southi' accents (“prevalent to those with a flavour of coconut oil and rolled bowel movements”) alike, can make quite a disconcerting read, for before one realises it, one may just come across their own reflection in Saldanha's intricate mirror.

When asked if writing such lampooning stories had inevitably antagonised anybody, Saldanha says, “I'd like to think of myself as an equal opportunity offender! Experiences, especially in a semi-anecdotal column, can never be considered sacrosanct. If a novelist is allowed free reign to experience life, to internalise and fictionalise it, and then later reproduce it for print, by the same yardstick, even columnists should be allowed to do so.
More so, if one writes a nostalgia slash (sic) whimsy column – everything becomes fair game. I myself have no problem myself if people say “oh you Mangies are like this…” That said, Saldanha is however quick to
acknowledge the hesitation of editors who believe that Indians, while “having many sacred cows and way too many fundoos” just haven't learnt to laugh at themselves yet.

As to the raison d'être for the book: “Well, it was in response to multiple requests from readers asking if there was a central source where they could find all my columns,” Saldanha says. “In fact the book has already become so popular”, he adds,” that its often read out as a party piece.” The novel apart, Saldanha has also done the rounds of films and theatre, the last being Popcorn (he is a food critic of mixed repute, travel writer, and an
actor rolled into one). Starting off initially with a granite business, (the experiences of which are incidentally narrated in great mirth by his Italian friend ‘Valerio' in the book), Saldanha considers himself lucky to have
converted his passion into a profession. Now he does things he enjoys: event management and writing. And if the appreciation expressed by the discerning cognoscenti at the launch is any guage of Saldanha's talent, Hung by My Family Tree is bound to be a success for its laughs galore.

The NYTimes reports that M.M. Kaye, the novelist who gave Americans a rather romanticized and, in my opinion, a parochial view of the British Raj died Thursday. She is best known for writing The Far Pavilions. A television series by the same title, in 1984, brought her worldwide attention.

Was it not also in the early 1980's that Sir Richard Attenborough's Gandhi and another television series, The Jewel in the Crown made their debut?

M. M. Kaye, 95, Novelist Who Evoked Raj, Dies
By WOLFGANG SAXON

Published: February 5, 2004

M. M. Kaye, the British writer and illustrator, who wrote “The Far Pavilions,” a luxuriant evocation of her upbringing in the India of the British Raj, died last Thursday. She was 95 and lived in Suffolk, England.

Her death was announced Tuesday by her New York agents, Harold Ober Associates.

Mary Margaret Kaye — or Mrs. Hamilton, as she was also known — started a moderately successful writing career in the late 1930's. She had filled a medium-size bookshelf with children's books, novels and mysteries before she published her blockbuster of a historical romance in 1978.

“The Far Pavilions,” published in the United States by St. Martin's Press, was an immediate best seller. Set at the zenith of Britain's Indian Empire and covering a period from roughly 1885 to 1920, it led to a television mini-series in 1984, sold millions of copies around the world and remains in print, as do a dozen of her other books.

Using her nickname Mollie Kaye, she wrote stories for younger readers, like her “Potter Pinner” series (1937-41), and “Black Bramble Wood” (1938). Some of her other books were ascribed to Mollie Hamilton.

She had written two earlier historical romances of lesser renown, “Shadow of the Moon” (1956) and “Trade Wind” (1963). The first dramatized events of the Indian Mutiny of 1857 as witnessed by an orphaned Anglo-Spanish heiress sent to India to marry. “Trade Wind,” set in Zanzibar, similarly tells a story of conflicting cultures.

“Far Pavilions,” nearly 1,000 pages long, was written over about 16 years and relived a world of the viceroys and maharajahs that its author knew well. She was born in Simla, summer residence of the British viceroy. Her father, Sir Cecil Kaye, was titular head of an Indian state, Rajputana. Her husband, Maj. Gen. Goff Hamilton, served with Queen Victoria's Own Corps of Guides, as had his father.

She started the book in 1964, but it had barely reached three chapters, when a diagnosis of cancer stopped her. She picked it up four years later, upon her husband's retirement, and kept writing and doing the research for it in England while fighting her illness.

The result has been compared by some to the Civil War epic “Gone With the Wind.” She said she “just let the book take over and write itself.” It surprised her, she said, when Thomas McCormack, president of St. Martin's Press, acquired the manuscript without cuts.

Her other work thrived as well, thanks to the fame of “The Far Pavilions.” She had written many detective and mystery novels, beginning with “Death Walked in Kashmir” (1953) and continuing into the mid-1990's. The settings of the books shifted with her husband's postings, from Berlin to Cyprus to Kenya. They, too, remain in print.

In “The Far Pavilions,” passions, intrigue and narrow escapes involve concubines, dashing heroes and princesses. Its television adaptation, presented in installments, starred Ben Cross and Amy Irving and featured Omar Sharif, Christopher Lee and John Gielgud.

Miss Kaye edited several volumes of poetry by Rudyard Kipling and wrote an autobiographical trilogy, “The Sun in the Morning: My Early Years in India and England” (St. Martin's, 1990), “Golden Afternoon” (St. Martin's, 1998), and “Enchanted Evening” (Viking, 1999). All remain in print.

General Hamilton died in 1985. They had two daughters, Carolyn and Nicky, who survive, according to The Telegraph of London, as does a stepdaughter. Speaking of pseudonyms as a writer's alter egos, Miss Kaye told Herbert Mitgang of The New York Times in 1978, “If you're writing about rabbits, readers might not take you seriously with a large historical romance under the same name.”