Bibliofile

Crossing A Channel

Rajdeep Sardesai, who recently quit as the editor-in-chief and the main anchor of newschannel CNN-IBN, is immersed in writing a book. But no, it will not be about the channel he built and finally left amidst controversy. "The book is broadly on the 2014 elections," he says. Neither he nor the publisher will confirm but the trade buzz is that Penguin has done the book deal with him and they are rushing to get it out soon.

Benefit of Gods

Kumarasambhavam, Kalidasa’s epic Sanskrit poem celebrating the love story of Shiva and Parvati with a str­ong erotic strain, has withstood all kinds of tinkering. Moral police both in the medieval period and in free India have censured Kalidasa for singing about the love-­making of gods. The poem is in eight sargas or cantos, and many editions do not have the last sarga, as it depi­cts the communion of Shiva and Parvati. Penguin has reprinted Hank Heifetz’s superb translation of the poem in a new, elegant edition. Yes, it does have the sensuous eighth sarga and no, a certain Prof Dinanath Batra has not yet asked the book to be pulped.

Pay Less, Read More

There is no ‘achche din’ in sight for writers. A recent survey of over 2,500 writers in the UK has found that authors’ income has dropped by 29 per cent since 2005, when such a survey was conducted last time. Ironically, one of the reasons for the fall in income is the sheer number of books being published—as there is basically a fight for shelf-life, more authors get paid less royalty. Wonder what a survey like this will throw up in India.