Bhasha Made Him
As if to compensate for this slap in the face to the cocky English lobby, the Akademi invited Amitav Ghosh to give the annual lecture to this year’s 23 award winners and others in the literary fraternity. Titled Aspects of Contemporary Fiction in Indian English, Ghosh chose to duck the usual English-bhasha divide by describing his books as "Bengali written in English" and then dwelt only on the Bengali books and authors that he claimed formed his literary tastes in his youth and childhood.
Right Buzz
The man without whom the Slumdog Millionaire would never have happened, diplomat-writer Vikas Swarup, says his Q & A really has its genesis in his student days in Allahabad. Did you know, for instance, that all through his school and college days, Swarup was a dedicated quiz champion, collecting trivia of all kinds on flash cards.
