Bibliofile
What a catch for Penguin! A trilogy of Amitav Ghosh novels, his "most ambitious undertaking by far"..And what's the rudest thing you can say to a Pakistani writer?
Maximum Audacity
What's the rudest thing you can say to a Pakistani writer? Suketu Mehta won this quiz hands down in a heated exchange with Pakistani author Feryal Ali Gauhar on the sidelines of the Jaipur litfest. Already feeling slighted by the caste hierarchy at the litfest, Suketu didn't help matters when he callously described her mother-tongue as Hindi instead of Urdu. Now, now, even for two authors who write in English, blurring the line between Urdu and Hindi is clearly asking for big trouble. And Feryal did unleash the furies, going by reports trickling in from the bystanders of this unseemly row.
At Great Paeans
A reporter who managed the impossible by persuading Salman Rushdie to grant her an interview at the Jaipur litfest explained the secret of her success. "You have to say nice things to him. You can't say not-nice things." Ego fed, ergo, the man talks.