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Maharana of Mewar inaugurates ‘7 Stories For Mewar’

Artist, writer Priya Pereira has created an artists’ book that actually comprises seven stories from the royal House of Mewar.

It was an event fit for royalty.

Shriji Arvind Singh Mewar of Udaipur, Chairman and Managing Trustee of Maharana of Mewar Charitable Foundation (MMCF) and the 76th custodian of the House of Mewar, was in Mumbai recently to launch artist Priya Pereira’s book.

Priya creates artists’ books that are works of art in the form of a book, often published in small editions and employing a range of forms, including scrolls, fold-outs, concertinas or loose items contained in a box. Pereira has created an artist’s book for Eternal Mewar as well, titled 7 Stories for Mewar.

Commissioned by the Maharana of Mewar, these little books hold seven stories from the illustrious history of the House of Mewar over 1,500 years. “Their beauty lies not only in their stories, but in the fact that they are pendants that can be worn as necklaces. The cover depicts the sun, as the Maharana of Mewar is a Suryavanshi, or descendent of the sun. Placed in each room of the Historic Resort Hotels, Udaipur, it has delighted the guests as more than just bedside reading,” Shriji said.

He said, “Priya’s books are exceptional in their creativity and their readers have always derived so much joy from perusing them. We are especially proud of the books that she has created for us. It is one more beautiful addition to the legacy of Udaipur; we cherish it deeply.”

Pereira first began making books in 1993 under the banner of ‘Pixie Bks’, which has created 40-odd books till date.

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“I’m a storyteller, not a writer…”

Author Jeffrey Archer was at his witty best at the launch of the third book in his Clifton Chronicles series. Instead of five books, the series will have seven!
by Vrushali Lad | vrushali@themetrognome.in

That Jeffrey Archer is a gifted writer is a given. But that Jeffrey Archer is also a gifted public speaker is a fact one has to be present for to believe. At the launch of the third book – Best Kept Secret – in his Clifton Chronicles series at Andheri’s Landmark book store, Archer was in fine form, taking questions, deftly deflecting uncomfortable ones, deriding the audience when he felt they weren’t paying attention, and explaining what he felt was the crux of the film Lagaan.

In between, he also spoke about the book publishing industry, his Clifton Chronicles series, and in the end, signed copies of his newest book for a really long line of admirers.

Speaking on the importance of brevity, even while keeping the simplicity and beauty of a story intact, Archer said, “It is possible to write a very very short story in 100 words. And if you try it, you can write one in 100 words exactly – not 101, not 99, but 100 words. Write such a story before you write your novel,” he advised, after taking the audience through a 100-word short story he wrote years ago as part of a challenge that the Reader’s Digest had set him years ago. (See video below).

 

Talking about his newest book, and the Clifton Chronicles in general, Archer said, “The series was supposed to be three books. The first was Only Time Will Tell, the second was The Sins Of The Father, and the third is Best Kept Secret. In the first book, Harry Clifton (the story’s protagonist) was just 19 years old, and by the end of Book 3, he is just 35. To end the series here, I would have to bump him off at 35 years of age, so I decided there would be another book. I am now working on the first draft of Book 4, and by the end of it, Harry will only be 40 years old.

So I decided that there could be a fifth book. But, and this is hot from the Press, it’s probably going to be seven books. I got that one wrong, didn’t I?”

Speaking on the future of the book publishing industry, Archer said, “The e-book revolution is still to hit India. I own a Kindle, but I do feel that there’s quite like having a book to hold. But soon, there may be a time when people will buy e-books and not hard or soft covers. My book Kane And Abel was sold as an e-book for 20p only. The third Clifton Chronicles book will be sold for £8.25, while the hardcover costs £20. Naturally, people are going to go for the cheaper option. Do you understand what is being done? They’re only interested in selling their tablets – they got us to buy the tablet so we would buy e-books! And yet, though Kane And Abel sold for just 20p, as the author I still get £3 royalty per sale, so that’s an interesting dimension. But it’s a worrying development.”

Archer also fielded questions from the audience, and several of his replies evoked loud laughs:

Which of your books would you like to see filmed?

They’re currently filming Paths of Glory, (a story which claims that an Englishman was the first to scale Mount Everest). But since it’s Columbia Pictures and Hollywood, it’s called Everest. (makes face)

If there was ever a film made on your life, who do you think should play you?

(considers) I hear Brad Pitt is already vying for the role. But I would rather have Tom Cruise play me. Let them fight it out.

If you had to play a character from your books on screen, which one would it be?

Harry (from the Clifton Chronicles series).

In Book 3, you’ve based a relationship on incest, which we find really strange in India. What were your thoughts when you were writing about this?

The whole point of a story is that you must read further to know what happens. I knew where I was going with Harry, Emma and Giles. And there’s a bigger problem coming up in Book 4.

Do you think you missed out on a different life because you became a writer? What if politics had worked for you, would you still be in politics?

You know, Proust said, “We all end up doing the thing we are second best at.” Everything went wrong in my life when I was 34. I lost a lot of money and I owed a lot of money. That was when I wrote my first book Not A Penny More, Not A Penny Less. And now you have 16 novels from me, because of one mistake I made so many years ago! But if politics had worked for me, yes I would still be in it.

When are we going to read a Jeffrey Archer cricket story, or have a cricket protagonist in your book?

I wouldn’t be writing a cricket book. Yes, I love cricket with all my heart. But my audience primarily comes from America, and they don’t a clue about cricket! They’re quite stupid, aren’t they? So no, no cricket books from me. But I did watch and enjoy Lagaan, though the dancing was terrible. But watching that film as a storyteller, I thought that the beauty of the story was that there wouldn’t have been a Lagaan if the umpires had cheated.

What do you think about 20:20 cricket?

As far as I’m concerned, 20:20 is rubbish. A test match is VVS Laxman and Rahul Dravid playing the entire day. 20:20 cricket can go to hell.

Did you take formal training to be a writer?

No, I never did. I am well-educated, and my wife is certainly more educated than me. I’ve lived with her for 40 years, so I’ve learnt a lot from her. But I’m a storyteller, not a writer.

How do you know if what you’ve written is good?

You don’t. If you’ll take my advice, you won’t show your writing to these people: your husband, your wife and your lover. They will all lie. If you want to know if your writing’s good, show it to someone who has never met you. You’ll get the truth then.

You need the hear the truth in this business, at every stage of your career. Recently, I was in Dubai for a book launch, and two beautiful children came up to me, a boy and a girl. The boy asked me, ‘Are you an English writer?’ I said, ‘Yes’. He asked me, ‘Are you Enid Blyton?’ I said, ‘No’. He asked, ‘Are you Roald Dahl?’ I said, ‘No.’ Then he asked, ‘Then why are you here?’

Have you ever read Indian authors? Who’s your favourite?

I have read Indian authors, yes, and I am going to say this quite carefully. I think you have an author who is far superior to the sacred cows of Indian writing – RK Narayan is the real thing, he’s wonderful. I prefer him to your sacred cows, and I think you know who I am referring to.

They tell me more Indians are writing books than anybody else in the world. But remember, and these are scary numbers: For every 1,000 books sent to publishers, only one is published. For every 10,000 books published, only one makes it to the bestsellers’ lists. And for every 1,000 books on the bestsellers’ lists, only one makes it to #1. The odds are against you, but that must not stop you from going ahead and writing. There are always surprises. (Watch Archer taking questions in the video below)

 

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‘Stop looking for love’

Rupa Gulab speaks about her latest book, why she prefers writing short stories and about telling it like it is.
by Vrushali Lad | vrushali@themetrognome.in

That Rupa Gulab is a very good writer is stating the obvious. The writer of three books – Girl Alone, Chip Of The Old Blockhead and The Great Depression Of The 40s: A Novel, and a columnist with a flair for the comic touch, Rupa is a revelation with her newest book, I Kissed A Frog.

In an interview with The Metrognome, the author talks about writing on love and friendship, how her most poignant tale in this story is an ode to her best friend, and why one must stop looking for love and let it come when it has to.

Why a book of irreverent short stories on love?

Why not? I enjoy telling it like it is! I must say that with I Kissed A Frog I discovered that writing short stories is so much more fun than writing a novel. You have so many different characters and situations to play with – it’s great entertainment for a writer. But I’d just like to point out that this book is not merely about love – friendship plays a huge role here. And friendship (to me) is just as important as love. I pointed that out in ‘Hell’s Angel’ (one of the stories in the book), where the heroine is gutted when her best friend moves to New York.

You mention in the book that some of the stories were published earlier in magazines and websites, and that you made changes to them before they went into I Kissed A Frog. What is it like, re-visiting something that is written and published?

What can I say? I get bored rather quickly. My first novel, Girl Alone, was based on a column called Dating Diary that ran in Cosmopolitan for two years. When I decided to adapt it to a novel, I made many changes. Like, for example, in the column whenever Arti (the heroine) goes through a spot of trauma, she glugs antacids. In the novel, I changed it to cough syrup because that gives it a more dangerous dimension. I have to refresh things to keep myself interested. Then there’s so much more freedom when you’re writing a book. You can use swear words liberally without worrying about nasty letters being sent to an editor. And there’s no word count limitation – you can write as much as you want.

That’s why I made a few changes to six of the stories in I Kissed A Frog that were published earlier in mags and websites.

Are any of the stories in I Kissed A Frog autobiographical?

Not at all. Girl Alone was the only novel in which I let a part of myself show.

Of all the stories in the book, ‘Au Revoir’ stands out for its very different tone. In fact, I was startled by how searing this particular story was, not what I was expecting after such funny ones as ‘Diet Wars’. What inspired this particular story?

When I was writing stories for the Friendship Diaries section of I Kissed A Frog, I decided to put in one about my best friend, Ranjona Banerji, too. See, Ranjona and I have always joked about the fact that she will outlive me because of my lousy lifestyle choices. Which means she’d be the person to contribute to my obituary, and I’d be off the hook for her obit, right?

So I decided to write her obit in advance – Au Revoir is just that. It’s a tribute to our long friendship that goes back to school days. Not surprisingly, the emotions flowed naturally, and dark humour set the tone. I sent her a cryptic text message while I was writing it, saying that I had just murdered her.  As far as I’m concerned, my job is done. And she owes me an obit, and I want it now! Hell, I’m longing to read nice things about myself before I die.

Have any of your family and friends featured as characters in any of the stories?

While there are shades of some members of my family (including my husband) in my earlier novels, I Kissed A Frog is free of family-based characters. And I bet they’re all heaving a sigh of relief! This book really is about different kinds of love and a celebration of friendship. And, as I mentioned before, the story ‘Au Revoir’ is based on and for my best friend.

Of all the stories, which one is your favourite? Why?

I have three favourites: ‘The Ex-Files’, ‘Au Revoir’ and ‘Rapper N. Zel’. I enjoyed writing ‘The Ex-Files’ because of the gradual changes in the heroine’s prickly relationship with her mother after she got dumped – exploring relationships is my thing! I loved writing ‘Rapper N. Zel’ because it’s all about how women have to struggle to break the glass ceiling and how bitter they become because of it – and in my mind, this story is dedicated to all my friends who’ve faced that problem. And as for ‘Au Revoir’, I’ve already told you why it’s special for me.

Of all the stories, which one is most likely to have played out in your own life?

Oh, ‘Hell’s Angel’ – definitely! I worked in the media (as a copywriter in advertising) for many years. The heroine’s lifestyle could have been mine.

What is the nicest compliment you’ve received for ‘I Kissed A Frog? 

A review by a male blogger who started out by saying how much he disliked chick lit, and ended up saying that I Kissed A Frog changed his mind about the genre. I seriously love this guy! (Read his review here)

What is your honest opinion on love and the various ways we go about looking for it? 

I’d say stop looking for it! Don’t waste your time. It will come when it has to. And if it doesn’t come, who cares? Look, you have friends you can rely on for companionship, FB and Twitter are great interaction spaces, and then you have work, books, music and movies to lose yourself in. Life’s crowded enough already. When I was in college, I’d put up a lovely paragraph from DH Lawrence’s Lady Chatterley’s Lover on my bedroom wall. It says everything I believe about love. Here goes:

“It’s no good trying to get rid of your own aloneness. You’ve got to stick to it all your life. Only at times, at times, the gap will be filled in. At times! But you have to wait for the times.”

Not surprisingly, I put this quote in Girl Alone as well!

On the subject of your sister Kushalrani (aka Bunny), who you say is a ‘horror, and your worst critic’, how has having a writer sibling helped you when you write?

Well, most writers always show their first draft to family and/or close friends. I have a small core group: my sisters Roma Circar and Kushalrani Gulab (aka Bunny), my husband Salil Sadanandan and my friend Ranjona Banerji. The reason why I chose them is because we share the same sense of humour and irony. Incidentally, all of them are writers. While my husband is not a full time writer (he was cruelly shoved on the IIT, IIM path by his parents) he occasionally writes on eclectic subjects (humour, design and travel) for various publications.

When I share my first draft with them, my brief is very stern: “Do not waste my precious time by telling me what you like about it. Tell me what you hate about it. Be savage, rip it to shreds!” I must say that this is the only time they ever listen to me. I grade them on the ‘savagery’ index:

Roma is the gentlest of the lot. When she doesn’t like something, she informs me firmly but apologetically, starting her sentences with nervous “umms.”

Ranjona is tougher. No “umms” for her. It’s always a grim “hmm” which is followed by a bald statement. Our biggest arguments are over the placement of commas. We both have strong views on the subject.

Bunny and Salil are the most frightening – and frankly, I don’t know which one is worse. Let me start with Bunny. When she goes through my draft she ruthlessly deletes sentences/paragraphs that she believes interfere with the flow of the story, ignoring my howls of anguish. Hell, some of my funniest jokes have been killed by her and she’s always unrepentant. “The story comes first,” is her heartless mantra.

Clichés are bigger sins than murder according to her, and my God, if she happens to spot something like “as white as snow”, she hisses menacingly and explodes like an angry pressure cooker. I have, however, sneakily slipped in an “over the moon” in one of the stories in I Kissed A Frog. An act of defiance, just to prove to her that I have a backbone!

If Bunny does the pressure-cooker-exploding act to frightening perfection, Salil is like one of those raging Pamplona bulls you really don’t want to cross paths with. He gets furious, absolutely livid, if he comes across bits he doesn’t like. I am ordered (yes, ordered!) to rewrite bits of stories, change a character’s profession, change a tone of voice, et cetera. And though I’m complaining bitterly, I have to confess that his feedback on the draft of I Kissed A Frog was marvellous. Bunny’s softer when it comes to rewrites. She merely offers suggestions that I am free to ignore.

At the end of it all, I’m a quivering mess and I go with my gut. Sometimes I give in, sometimes I don’t. But I’m always thankful for the advice from all four of them because they are the critics I respect most.

What is the kind of writing you are most drawn to? Who are your favourite authors?

I grew up in a house that had more books than furniture because my parents were voracious readers. Humour was their preference and we had practically every single book written by PG Wodehouse, Richmal Compton, Anthony Buckeridge, Lewis Carroll, etc. As I grew older, I added a few more humour writers to my personal book shelves: Woody Allen, James Thurber, George Mikes, Richard Armour and Gerald Durrell, to name a few. At the same time, I have to confess that I sighed deeply over Gaston Leroux’s The Phantom Of The Opera, William Saroyan’s beautifully brilliant The Human Comedy, Richard Llewellyn’s How Green Was My Valley (my dad’s favourite book), most of DH Lawrence, some of Thomas Hardy and other  books that do not fall into the humour category. And as for the girlie moments, I still fall back on my mum’s favourites: Jane Austen, Georgette Heyer and Jean Webster who wrote my absolutely favourite growing up book Daddy Long-legs. Oh, and I have finally learnt to appreciate Charles Dickens! My parents loved him so, and they were shocked that I hated his books when I was in school and college.

What are you working on next?

I can’t say yet. I’ve got two novels for drastically different target audiences in mind, but I really have no idea if and when I’ll get down to it. I’m not a disciplined writer anymore.  Take I Kissed A Frog. I suddenly decided to write it in April last year and finished it in three months flat. I’m pretty much worn out after that frenetic burst of activity.

Lastly, if you had to change the endings for any of these stories, which ones would you choose and how would you change them?

I wouldn’t change them at all.

 _________________________

About the book:

I Kissed A Frog is a collection of not-so-perfect love stories, dealing as they are with ex-boyfriends, current boyfriends hooking up with best friends, aiming for a man who doesn’t love one when another who does is right in front of one, friends and colleagues engaged in diet wars, and in a really funny vein, love and relationships through popular fairy tales set in contemporary times.

I particularly liked ‘Love in F Major’, where a girl starts seeing a married man and hopes he will make the ultimate choice, ‘Welcome to the Sisterhood’, which discusses sex change, ‘Wannabe mum’, in which a woman’s biological clock decides the course of her stable relationship, ‘Au revoir’, in which a dying girl says goodbye to her best friend, and all of the ‘Not-so-grim fairy tales for big, bad girls’.

Rupa keeps the tone conversational and sometimes flippant, bringing in different dimensions to love, romance, inter-office rivalry, personal insecurities, and of course, friendship. This is a book to be read by all women – those who have a gang of girls to hang out with, those who slink off home after work to watch TV and eat ice cream straight from the container, those who wonder why their mothers and best friends oppose everything they say and do, and especially those who feel that the world ended with their one great romance.

In fact, the book stands the very real danger of being picked up only by women – and all the stories are written from a woman’s perspective. Maybe Rupa’s next book of short stories could be about what men want.

Send us a love story to editor@themetrognome.in, and you could win a copy of Rupa Gulab’s I Kissed A Frog. 

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Who will set these wrongs right?

RB Sreekumar, Godhra whistleblower, writes to the PM asking for probe into IAS and IPS officers’ actions during the carnage.
by Humra Quraishi

Come January, the names for the Padma Awards would be announced. I’m not too sure how the eventual winners are selected, but one underlying factor seems to be that high-flying, glamorous people always find a place on the lists.

What about the men and women who have tried to flow against the tide? Why don’t such individuals ever find a mention? Why don’t we honour men who have had the guts to take on the political mafia, and done it persistently, such as the first whistleblower cop of Gujarat, former DGP RB Sreekumar, who tried exposing his own chief minister Narendra Modi .

The 1971 batch IPS officer wrote an expose on December 6, in which he jotted down 50 misdeeds of the Modi Government. When I met him years ago, he’d categorically stated that if one sees skull caps or long flowing beards and burqas in a Modi-sponsored meet, then one mustn’t automatically assume that the wearers of these garments are Muslims. “RSS cadres are donning all this, putting up the façade of the typical ‘Muslim look’, to fool the masses that Muslims are tilting towards Modi and his men,” he’d said.

This is a very recent letter that Sreekumar has sent to Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh:

‘Sub:- Request for study by LBS National Academy of Administration and SVP National Police Academy on the deviant acts of IAS and IPS officers during 2002 Gujarat riots.

Respected Sir,

Kindly find enclosed a copy of my representation to H E The Governor of Gujarat State, praying for initiation of punitive departmental action against State Govt. officials, who acted as collaborators to the planners and perpetrators of anti-minority carnage in 2002.

1. The riots enacted in nearly 1/3rd of geography of Gujarat, had left about 1,500 citizens killed, thousands injured, besides total destruction of many symbols of Islamic culture of medieval times.

2. IAS and IPS officers administering areas of high intensity violence had allegedly became patrons, promoters and facilitators to the planners, organisers, ground level mobilisers and foot soldiers of mass crimes against the Muslim citizens. These functionaries had, during riots, unabashedly and covertly dismantled the legal, administrative and regulatory architecture designed by the Criminal Procedure Code, Police Acts, Gujarat Police Manual and the Standard Operating Procedure (SOP), streamlined through numerous Govt. Orders. Many officers have indulged in competitive sycophancy to carry out the illegal hidden agenda of the ruling party for achieving Hindu communal consolidation to get electoral dividends.

The State Govt. had rewarded most of them with out-of-turn promotions, post retirement assignments etc.

3. The culpable role of the enablers to brigands, who indulged in extensive manslaughter, taken by officials, has thrown up serious questions about the efficiency, quality and impact of training imparted to them by the LBS National Academy of Administration and SVP National Police Academy. Most of IPS and IAS officers are exposed to several skill acquisition programmes in affluent foreign countries also.

4. So far, no in-depth study, analysis and examination of the causative factors responsible for a series of deviant acts by IAS and IPS officers of Gujarat State, during riots and subsequently, have been done with the objective of recasting of their training agenda for re-motivating officers to be in tune with their oath to the letter, spirit and ethos of the Constitution of India, as envisaged in the Preamble and Article 51(A) of the Constitution. Currently many officers brazenly do pursue the unholy goal of self centered careerism at the cost of the Rule of Law.

5. In this context, I humbly request you to task LBS National Academy of Administration and SVP National Police Academy for urgently conducting an in-house exercise of comprehensive study about failure of a section of bureaucracy and police in Gujarat since the riots in 2002. The Apex Court had opined that, in 2002, the officers acted like “Modern Neros”, (Zahira Sheikh v/s The State of Gujarat) which had not only actualised widespread violence but also resulted in subversion of the Criminal Justice System (CJS) to deny and delay justice delivery to riot victim survivors.’

(Picture courtesy thehindu.com)

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Mumbai Police website to be disabled-friendly

First police force in India to adopt disabled-friendly approach via its website; screen readers and videos will make access easier.
by The Editors | editor@themetrognome.in

How often have we accused our Government and even our society of not being sensitive enough to the needs of disabled persons in the country? Where physical infrastructure like buildings and transport are designed for people with ‘normal’ abilities, even the technology available in the market today does not take into account the needs of Persons with Disabilities (Pwd). But the Mumbai Police are set to do something about this.

Yesterday, on the occasion of the International Day of Persons with Disabilities, the Mumbai Police announced that its website www.mumbaipolice.org would soon be made accessible and user-friendly for PwD. Mumbai Police Commissioner Dr Satyapal Singh made the announcement in Mumbai yesterday. NASSCOM and BarrierBreak Technologies would work on the project. “The Mumbai Police website would soon be accessible to persons with all disabilities, including the deaf and blind. The website will allow visually-impaired to access information using screen readers, while the hearing impaired will be provided access to videos.”

Contending that PwD must also avail of the services offered by the Mumbai Police, Rajiv Vaishnav, Vice President of NASSCOM, said, “Working with Mumbai Police on this project is a part of bringing technology closer to PwD and making information relevant and useful to them.” He added that the website would conform to international standards like Web Content Accessibility Guideline 2.0.

(Pictures courtesy in.com and guardian.co.uk)

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Bombay wanted to fight China in 1962

…as did all of Maharashtra. Secret report made by then Governor to President S Radhakrishnan reveals anti-China angst and jingoism.
by The Editors | editor@themetrognome.in

The Governor of Maharashtra has just brought a bit of history to you. Recently, a report filed by the Governor of the State in 1962, Justice HK Chainani, and submitted to the then President Dr S Radhakrishnan immediately after the Chinese aggression on the country’s northern borders, which resulted in the Indo-China war of 1962, was made available to the public archives of the Raj Bhavan. The report gives an insight into the unrest and nationalism brewing in Bombay and Maharashtra at the time.

As per the report, which is dated November 1, 1962, the citizens of the city and the State were fully committed to fight the Chinese in whichever way possible – whether through joining the Army, giving up a day’s wages, holding demonstrations, refusing to strike work, donating blood, signing up to knit jackets for jawans or contributing to realise the target of Rs 10 crore for the National Defence Fund.

The report writes glowingly of Maharashtra so willing to go to war against China, that thousands of people waited in queues to enlist at the Apollo Bunder Army Recruitment Centre; when the Centre was opened, the oncoming rush broke a few wooden gates and the police had to be summoned to restrain the crowd.

Apart from a strong anti-Communist feeling in Mumbai and the State, the rush to donate blood for soldiers fighting at the borders was also high, as was the desire to donate wages  and abstain from leaves at work. The report says, “Donations to the National Defence Fund are pouring in. Large number of people, including Government servants, have donated their blood for being used for the jawans fighting on the front. Various Labour Unions have resolved to abstain from strikes during the period of emergency. Some of them have directed their members to contribute one day’s wages to the National Defence Fund. All the parties, except a section of the Communists, are now united in a common determination to defend the country and its freedom.”

Further, the report adds, “At a meeting of representatives of all political parties excluding Communists, and prominent industrialists and citizens convened by the Chief Minister on October 27, it was decided to form Citizens’ Committees at the State and city levels and in every ward in Greater Bombay. These Committees will collect funds, keep up public morale and also see that no anti social elements take advantage of the existing emergency. They will also coordinate the activities of the various other organisations.”

Read the entire report below.

(Featured image courtesy www.indiadefencereview.com)

 

 

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