In Their Libraries
Hard-working authors seem to be doing more research for their tomes. Raghav Bahl’s Super Economies: America, India, China and the Future of the World, has 111 pages of notes (The 392-page book ends on 272, the rest is acknowledgements). Dilip Hiro’s The Longest August: The Unflinching Rivalry Between India and Pakistan has 66 pages of notes. Indians in Kenya: The Politics of Diaspora by Sana Aiyar, a book on Indians in Africa, has 72 pages of notes and index and Harsh Mander’s Looking Away: Inequality, Prejudice and Indifference in New India has 66 pages of notes.
Fighting For Less
Diya Sethi had an ‘addiction’ known as anorexia-bulimia; she would just throw up whatever she ate. Then she went on to addictions like alcohol and chemicals. She has just written a book about it, The Addict, and she spoke bravely about her dark days in front of a rapt audience at the launch. Her tale was so inspiring that another person suffering from a similar disorder went up to her to the dais and promised that she too would fight to get out of it. The book had already hit its mark.
Character Search
Salman Rushdie is again in Tweet-news. He has called the six authors who refused to attend the PEN gala event in New York to honour Charlie Hebdo, like Peter Carey, Michael Ondatjee and Taiye Selasi ‘Six Authors in Search of a Bit of Character’. These authors have refused to attend the function for various reasons, basically questioning if what Charlie Hebdo was doing was right. But Rushdie is certain it was a case of stifling freedom of expression by terrorists, and has called the boycotters ‘Just 6 Pussies’.
