At Battalion HQ
As with most disaster scenarios—the sinking of the Titanic, WW II, 9/11, the Asian tsunami—the coup in Delhi too had been foretold in fiction. Krishan Partap Singh’s Delhi Durbar (Hachette India) uncannily plots a coup attempt by a megalomaniac army general angry with corrupt politicians. Sample this passage from the book that came out in early 2010: “Tell your intelligence people to keep a close eye on every Special Forces battalion.... I have no doubt they will be responsible for wresting control of key institutions and for apprehending the senior civil leadership. Also, the 9th Infantry Division in Meerut and the 6th Mountain Division in Bareilly, due to their proximity to Delhi, will naturally provide the foot soldiers to enforce the military’s will on the Capital.” The only difference is, of course, this historic event did not take place. A case of fiction imitating fiction?
All The World In It
David Davidar and Ravi Singh’s Aleph Book Company is out with its first catalogue list: elegantly brought out with an eclectic mix of authors. There will be books by seasoned writers like Khushwant Singh (The Freethinker’s Prayer Book) and Ruskin Bond (Days and Nights at the Savoy) to new writers like Nilanjana S. Roy (The Wildings) and Ira Trivedi (India in Love: Love, Sex and Marriage in 21st Century India). Aleph’s books are spread across genres, like fiction, travel, food, erotica, and reportage.
