A Taste of Our Medicine
Pre-Frankfurt, the Germans got a taste of India's chaotic style of (mis)managing mega events. Following a time-honoured tradition, Germany's top newsweekly, Der Spiegel, sent a team ahead to Delhi to interview writers and publishers for a 32-page special edition it does every year on the Frankfurt Book Fair's guest of honour. It turned out to be a nightmare: no appointments lined up despite e-mails and organisers nbt leaving them kicking their heels in the reception. Result: interviews with two authors—Arundhati Roy and Rana Dasgupta—and one publisher, Roli's Pramod Kapoor.
Capital Sin
Trust Salman Rushdie to come up with a pithy description of the chatterati in Calcutta and Delhi. "The difference between Delhi and Calcutta," he observed to a fellow-panelist two years ago, "is that in Calcutta they drop the names of books and in Delhi they drop the names of authors."
