Bibliofile
Some have called it "a disease", others "the height of egotism" and as Anthony Trollope put it: "No man ever did so truly, and no man ever will."
Oral Tradition
V.P. Singh too has been signed on for his autobiography. But those who want a preview need only go to the Nehru Memorial Library which has just completed a lengthy transcript of his oral autobiography. Incidentally, he's the only former PM, besides I.K. Gujral, who has consented to record his days as PM on tape. All the other ex-PMs, including Vajpayee, have given the library archivists the slip. Included in the over 1,300 transcripts of the library's oral history archives are the memoirs of Mountbatten, JP, Rajagopalachari, Jyoti Basu, E.M.S. Namboodiripad, Y.B. Chavan and dozens of civil servants including T.N. Kaul and former raw chief R.N. Kaw.
We Wanna Rock Too
The government's Publications Division wants a pie of the publishing boom. At a recent brainstorming to make its 8,000 titles more visible, an official suggested: "Why not publish novels?" Thankfully, it was instantly shot down.