When one’s inbox is usually full of emails of complaints of readers—book deliveries reaching late, books lower down the queue arriving, newsletter updates not received.....it is indeed a pleasant change to get an email from a reader describing how he has been deeply moved by a book he has read from our library.
The book is Kishwar Desai’s ‘Witness the Night: Sometimes the Truth is Too Much to Bear’. A new addition to our stock, the book is about 14-year old Durga, who is a suspect for the mass murder of a family. Against all odds, it is a Simran, a social worker from Delhi, who believes that she may be more sinned against than sinning!
The person who sent me the email is Virendra Malik, a regular reader of our library!
Here is what Virendra had to say, and coming as it did, on the first Navratra of the year(I Am late in posting this), I think his email was very apt!
“Hi I recently borrowed "Witness the Night" by Kishwar Desai from www.bookmeabook.com. The book is based on female foeticide and female infanticide. The portrayal in the book, of the way females are treated in some pockets of our country made me want to throw up. Why is it that in the book little Durga and Sharda have to suffer so much? Just because they were girls and they survived the attempt to kill them during their child birth. Durga, as a nine year old keeps a little skeleton hand in her pencil box as it is of her elder sister who was not allowed to live and buried in the village fields as an infant. The parents were educated, the richest people in town. Their sons were not any better than their daughters, in terms of qualities, yet, the parents look for an NRI bride and treat the daughters pitiably.
Feed the girl child with opium, husk and drown them in milk, or else bury them in the village field to be eaten by dogs or ploughed down by tractors. My GOD!!!!!!
Made my stomach churn! Are we Indians so cruel? We pray to the GODDESS in the Navratras and kill the GODDESS in our home! Utterly shameful!!! I was so aghast and disturbed that I held my little daughter’s hand the whole night. She was the little soul that gave me solace tonight. It is only when we ill-treat our GODDESS at home like this that people like Ramnath and Manubhai come along.
An Essential and compelling read. Makes you think - is life really like that?”
Virendra, we need more people thinking like you do!! Desai’s book is one I could not read without feeling squeamish!
While we have come a long way, and many modern, city dwelling, emancipated women argue against reservation on the basis that they are no less than men, we need the women’s reservation bill, the reserved seats in buses, the 5 extra points for the girl child in Nursery Admissions, as nominal recognition of the basic anomaly in our society. What do you think?
You can find the link to the book at http://www.bookmeabook.com/book/show/id/5340
Click on the small L icon to connect to Librarything and get the detailed description of the book.
Friday, March 19, 2010
Sunday, February 21, 2010
Gyaana Books Title: Of Wooing, Woes and Wanderings.
BookMeABook was present at the launch of Gyaana Books, a new publishing venture by Divya Dubey.
Divya has come out with three books in the first list of Gyaana Books. One is a set of stories by Divya herself (more of which I would like to write about in a subsequent post), another is a racy and comical detective novel, and the third a novel about an ‘oilman’, called Of Wooing, Woes and Wanderings!
Now, to begin with I did not know what to expect from the novel, but it turned out to be quite the surprise out of the three. It is a fun read, and we decided to catch up with the author, Amitabha Chaterjee, and ask him about the whole experience of being a first time author!
Q. Is 'Of Wooing, Woes and Wanderings' your first work of fiction?
Amitabha Chaterjee: It is my first published work, though as a matter of chronology, I had written another story before this one. This second one went before the first.
Q. You graduated from IIT Delhi, but became, as you call it, 'an oilman'. Do elaborate on exactly what you are doing.
Amitabha Chaterjee: Oil and oilfield related companies generate a strong response in campus interviews at the IITs and other engineering colleges. In my time, there were 200+ applicants for 2 open positions for the company I interviewed with.
As an oilfield engineer, I have travelled to places where the only way to tell the road is by the tyre-marks, where the vehicles are kept switched on all through winter, because if you switched them off, they would freeze and never start up again, and where no one spoke any of the languages I knew.
My job primarily deals with oil exploration—figuring out where the oil is, and how to get it to the surface. I have lived in 7 different countries around the world so far, 1-3 years at a time.
3. How long did it take you to write this novel?
I started writing some parts many years back, without the intention to write a novel; mainly because there was nothing else to do in my leisure time (I was in Oman in a desert oil camp where I struggled to spend twenty dollars a month buying chocolates, there was just nothing else around.) Once I got serious, it took me about 3 months to write and another 3 to edit.
4. What part of the novel do you like best?
I like the initial part in Venezuela, a country that has few equals in my mind, so different and so beautiful – both the landscape and the women.
I particularly enjoyed writing about Rajarshi’s love pangs amidst the Ancient Egyptian temples along the Nile, from Luxor to Aswan.
And I love the last bit where all of Rajarshi’s priorities come to a clash and he has to figure a way out.
5. What sort of books do you like to read? Any favourite author you feel you have been influenced by?
I enjoy a wide variety, ranging from the classics, all time greats from Marquez, Tagore, Hesse to lighter, closer to the heart gems from R.K.Narayan as well as contemporary fiction, both literary and commercial.
I am sure I have been influenced by many authors, though I must confess that I stopped reading for the months that I was writing, in order for the voice of my protagonist to remain consistent.
6. What made you choose Gyaana books as the vehicle for your debut in the literary world?
Because their response was the most immediate. They said: – Yes we like it and are willing to publish, while a first time author often gets no reply or, if he is really lucky, ‘no’ as a reply. Then again, there are always the Adigas.
And once Gyaana decided to publish, things moved so fast that the next thing I knew, the book was out.
7. What is the first story you wrote, about?
It’s a story that attempts to explore a man’s infinite wish to find expression in life of who he thinks he is in the grand scheme of things, and his finite ability to actually find it.
Thanks Amitabha, for taking the time out to chat with us! We wish your book finds great success!!
‘Of Wooing, Woes and Wanderings’ is available not only in our library, but also for sale, with a 10% initial discount--which makes it a steal at Rs.225.
To order your copies, home delivered free of cost in Delhi and NCR, please email your orders to librarian@bookmeabook.com.
Divya has come out with three books in the first list of Gyaana Books. One is a set of stories by Divya herself (more of which I would like to write about in a subsequent post), another is a racy and comical detective novel, and the third a novel about an ‘oilman’, called Of Wooing, Woes and Wanderings!
Now, to begin with I did not know what to expect from the novel, but it turned out to be quite the surprise out of the three. It is a fun read, and we decided to catch up with the author, Amitabha Chaterjee, and ask him about the whole experience of being a first time author!
Q. Is 'Of Wooing, Woes and Wanderings' your first work of fiction?
Amitabha Chaterjee: It is my first published work, though as a matter of chronology, I had written another story before this one. This second one went before the first.
Q. You graduated from IIT Delhi, but became, as you call it, 'an oilman'. Do elaborate on exactly what you are doing.
Amitabha Chaterjee: Oil and oilfield related companies generate a strong response in campus interviews at the IITs and other engineering colleges. In my time, there were 200+ applicants for 2 open positions for the company I interviewed with.
As an oilfield engineer, I have travelled to places where the only way to tell the road is by the tyre-marks, where the vehicles are kept switched on all through winter, because if you switched them off, they would freeze and never start up again, and where no one spoke any of the languages I knew.
My job primarily deals with oil exploration—figuring out where the oil is, and how to get it to the surface. I have lived in 7 different countries around the world so far, 1-3 years at a time.
3. How long did it take you to write this novel?
I started writing some parts many years back, without the intention to write a novel; mainly because there was nothing else to do in my leisure time (I was in Oman in a desert oil camp where I struggled to spend twenty dollars a month buying chocolates, there was just nothing else around.) Once I got serious, it took me about 3 months to write and another 3 to edit.
4. What part of the novel do you like best?
I like the initial part in Venezuela, a country that has few equals in my mind, so different and so beautiful – both the landscape and the women.
I particularly enjoyed writing about Rajarshi’s love pangs amidst the Ancient Egyptian temples along the Nile, from Luxor to Aswan.
And I love the last bit where all of Rajarshi’s priorities come to a clash and he has to figure a way out.
5. What sort of books do you like to read? Any favourite author you feel you have been influenced by?
I enjoy a wide variety, ranging from the classics, all time greats from Marquez, Tagore, Hesse to lighter, closer to the heart gems from R.K.Narayan as well as contemporary fiction, both literary and commercial.
I am sure I have been influenced by many authors, though I must confess that I stopped reading for the months that I was writing, in order for the voice of my protagonist to remain consistent.
6. What made you choose Gyaana books as the vehicle for your debut in the literary world?
Because their response was the most immediate. They said: – Yes we like it and are willing to publish, while a first time author often gets no reply or, if he is really lucky, ‘no’ as a reply. Then again, there are always the Adigas.
And once Gyaana decided to publish, things moved so fast that the next thing I knew, the book was out.
7. What is the first story you wrote, about?
It’s a story that attempts to explore a man’s infinite wish to find expression in life of who he thinks he is in the grand scheme of things, and his finite ability to actually find it.
Thanks Amitabha, for taking the time out to chat with us! We wish your book finds great success!!
‘Of Wooing, Woes and Wanderings’ is available not only in our library, but also for sale, with a 10% initial discount--which makes it a steal at Rs.225.
To order your copies, home delivered free of cost in Delhi and NCR, please email your orders to librarian@bookmeabook.com.
Saturday, January 16, 2010
Looking forward to 26th January 2010
These days, as I commute to work every day, I am often delayed at Rajpath, where practice for the 26th January Parade is going in full swing. Though I am usually quite put off by delays in the morning, as they create a domino effect on the rest of my day, this delay I bear happily!
The Parade always instils a feeling of patriotism in my mind. However unmindful we are of our Nationalism the rest of the year, January brings us this reminder of our country’s strength—both military and cultural! The crispness of the uniforms of the jawans, the colour of the school children’s costumes and the beauty of the jhankis (the tableaux), all reiterate the grandeur of our wonderful country!
Of course, for me the Republic Day parade also brings nostalgia of several years of my childhood spent around the India Gate area. My friends and I used to watch the Parade live on TV, then rush down the stairs and line up on the roadside, while it went past. This was of course when the Parade went right through Kasturba Gandhi Marg (erstwhile Curzon Road) and then through Connaught Place, and not on its now-shortened route along Tilak Marg.
As we watch the Parade this year, whether on TV, or along Rajpath, I hope all of us reaffirm our belief in, and love for, this wondrous country of ours!
The Parade always instils a feeling of patriotism in my mind. However unmindful we are of our Nationalism the rest of the year, January brings us this reminder of our country’s strength—both military and cultural! The crispness of the uniforms of the jawans, the colour of the school children’s costumes and the beauty of the jhankis (the tableaux), all reiterate the grandeur of our wonderful country!
Of course, for me the Republic Day parade also brings nostalgia of several years of my childhood spent around the India Gate area. My friends and I used to watch the Parade live on TV, then rush down the stairs and line up on the roadside, while it went past. This was of course when the Parade went right through Kasturba Gandhi Marg (erstwhile Curzon Road) and then through Connaught Place, and not on its now-shortened route along Tilak Marg.
As we watch the Parade this year, whether on TV, or along Rajpath, I hope all of us reaffirm our belief in, and love for, this wondrous country of ours!
Monday, December 21, 2009
From all of us at BookMeABook, here’s wishing you a Happy Christmas and a Very Joyful and Successful New Year!
We hope 2010 brings for you all you wish for!
I was struck by the number of book titles in our library which have the word Christmas in their title. Of course, the word conjures up visions of festivity, family time, holiday making and good old Yule tide cheer! So, not surprisingly, most of the books which have these titles are romances, meant to be read all curled up in a nice warm comforter or razai, with your heater nicely warming the room.
Here are some of the more popular Romance titles that I can recall immediately:
Janet Dailey’s Let’s be Jolly! and Mistletoe and Holly
It Happened At Christmas, by Penny Jordan.
Mrs. Miracle, by Debbie Macomber.
Christmas with a Latin Lover, by Lynne Graham.
Eve’s Christmas, by Janet Dailey.
Blue Christmas, by Mary Kay Andrews.
Some Detective fiction also has a good dose of Christmas:
Carole Higgins Clarks’ A Holiday Mystery at Sea.
Hercule Poirot’s Christmas.
The Adventure of the Christmas Pudding.
The Seven and Father Christmas
Skipping Christmas by John Grisham.
The Christmas Thief, by Mary Higgins Clark
And of course, the all-time seasonal favourite, Charles Dickens’ The Christmas Books.
We even have A Christmas Carol, in graphic novel form.
We hope 2010 brings for you all you wish for!
I was struck by the number of book titles in our library which have the word Christmas in their title. Of course, the word conjures up visions of festivity, family time, holiday making and good old Yule tide cheer! So, not surprisingly, most of the books which have these titles are romances, meant to be read all curled up in a nice warm comforter or razai, with your heater nicely warming the room.
Here are some of the more popular Romance titles that I can recall immediately:
Janet Dailey’s Let’s be Jolly! and Mistletoe and Holly
It Happened At Christmas, by Penny Jordan.
Mrs. Miracle, by Debbie Macomber.
Christmas with a Latin Lover, by Lynne Graham.
Eve’s Christmas, by Janet Dailey.
Blue Christmas, by Mary Kay Andrews.
Some Detective fiction also has a good dose of Christmas:
Carole Higgins Clarks’ A Holiday Mystery at Sea.
Hercule Poirot’s Christmas.
The Adventure of the Christmas Pudding.
The Seven and Father Christmas
Skipping Christmas by John Grisham.
The Christmas Thief, by Mary Higgins Clark
And of course, the all-time seasonal favourite, Charles Dickens’ The Christmas Books.
We even have A Christmas Carol, in graphic novel form.
Wednesday, December 2, 2009
Some thoughts on Maxine Hong Kingston's "A Woman Warrior"
Maxine Hong Kingston's "A Woman Warrior: Memoirs of a Girlhood Among Ghosts" was first published in 1976. It merges real details of her life with fantastical elements which Kingston draws from memory and imagination. In its six sections, it combines myth and personal experience to form a collection that starkly portrays the experience of growing up within two conflicting cultures. Each section deals with a separate memory--the story of the narrator's anonymous aunt, the narrator's vision of herself a as a female warrior akin to characters in the stories she has heard in her childhood, her mother Brave Orchid's education as a doctor in China, her aunt Moon Orchid's unsuccessful attempts to unite with her husband in America and finally, the narrator's own experience, particularly in school.
Kingston attempts to express the Chinese American language by rendering the rhythms and cadences of the Chinese 'talk-story' in English. It is almost as if she finds the conventional genres inadequate to present her perspective. Thus, she combines myth with memoir to shape her narrative.
Add "The Woman Warrior" to your queue and read this splendid novel about racial and cultural identity.
Kingston attempts to express the Chinese American language by rendering the rhythms and cadences of the Chinese 'talk-story' in English. It is almost as if she finds the conventional genres inadequate to present her perspective. Thus, she combines myth with memoir to shape her narrative.
Add "The Woman Warrior" to your queue and read this splendid novel about racial and cultural identity.
Sunday, November 8, 2009
Our Plans
Reading Plans, silly! We have no other plans in the near future. After Diwali, its just been a huge rollercoaster of a time. As always, the rest of the year will whizz past for us, as with many of you, with unending social events, celebrations, weddings, and other fun happenings with friends and family!
Since we set up our site—and it’s been more than two years now—the commonest question we have encountered is regarding our tariffs.
Although they are tabulated on our site under the section “Our Plans”, here’s a quick overview.
We have five plans, with different monthly tariffs based on the number of books you order. The refundable security deposit we take across all plans is the same—Rs. 500. Apart from this you have to make a monthly subscription which ranges from Rs.600 down to Rs.100 according to the plan you choose to take. The plans are as follows:
SUPER READER- gives you an unlimited number of deliveries of SIX* books at a time. Monthly Subscription Rs. 600. This is by far the most value you can get for your money.
REGULAR READER-gives you 2 deliveries of 3 books each in a month. Monthly subscription Rs 400. Our most popular plan!!
RELAXED READER-gives you 2 deliveries of 2 books each in a month. Monthly subscription Rs.300. This is a plan which most people begin with, and then jump to Regular Reader from it.
CASUAL READER- gives you 2 books a month. At Rs 150 a month, this is a JOLLY GOOD DEAL.
TURTLE READER- gives 1 book a month with a fee of Rs. 100. We only recommend this for those who really are hard-pressed for time!
Apart from the monthly subscription plans, our readers get interesting offers for subscription from time to time. For instance, we ran our 1+1 month offer with Yo! China earlier this year, which was a great experience. Our Book Fair membership offer got our new readers a choice of free books, and currently we are offering readers who give the entire year’s subscription 2 complimentary months! So you get 14 months reading for the price of 12.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
*Alright, so its an open secret now!! Yes, it’s true that our Super Readers have been receiving 6 books in one go for the past two months or so. Since it has been such a success, and has seen so many of our regular readers moving from Regular to Super reader, we shall soon make it official on our site too! In the meantime, Happy Reading!
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Since we set up our site—and it’s been more than two years now—the commonest question we have encountered is regarding our tariffs.
Although they are tabulated on our site under the section “Our Plans”, here’s a quick overview.
We have five plans, with different monthly tariffs based on the number of books you order. The refundable security deposit we take across all plans is the same—Rs. 500. Apart from this you have to make a monthly subscription which ranges from Rs.600 down to Rs.100 according to the plan you choose to take. The plans are as follows:
SUPER READER- gives you an unlimited number of deliveries of SIX* books at a time. Monthly Subscription Rs. 600. This is by far the most value you can get for your money.
REGULAR READER-gives you 2 deliveries of 3 books each in a month. Monthly subscription Rs 400. Our most popular plan!!
RELAXED READER-gives you 2 deliveries of 2 books each in a month. Monthly subscription Rs.300. This is a plan which most people begin with, and then jump to Regular Reader from it.
CASUAL READER- gives you 2 books a month. At Rs 150 a month, this is a JOLLY GOOD DEAL.
TURTLE READER- gives 1 book a month with a fee of Rs. 100. We only recommend this for those who really are hard-pressed for time!
Apart from the monthly subscription plans, our readers get interesting offers for subscription from time to time. For instance, we ran our 1+1 month offer with Yo! China earlier this year, which was a great experience. Our Book Fair membership offer got our new readers a choice of free books, and currently we are offering readers who give the entire year’s subscription 2 complimentary months! So you get 14 months reading for the price of 12.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
*Alright, so its an open secret now!! Yes, it’s true that our Super Readers have been receiving 6 books in one go for the past two months or so. Since it has been such a success, and has seen so many of our regular readers moving from Regular to Super reader, we shall soon make it official on our site too! In the meantime, Happy Reading!
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sunday, November 1, 2009
Dire Straits!
Dire Straits!
Ever noticed the similarities between Charles Dickens and our very own Munshi Premchand?
Yes, Dickens was English and Premchand was Indian, but they both were prolific writers and have reflected the harsh reality that marked their times in their work. Both have brought up common social issues in their body of work, and have left heart-rending imprints of their characters in the minds of their readers.
Dickens was born in 1812 in Hampshire in England, Premchand was born in a small village called Lamahi near Banaras. Both had relatively carefree childhoods which were rudely disrupted by incidents in the family. Dickens’ family sank into debt sometime after he turned five. Premchand’s childhood came to a sudden end at the age of 8, when his mother died.
Both of them had responsibilities thrust upon them early in life. Dhanpatrai (Premchand’s real name) had to manage his family, which included his wife, his step-mother and 2 step-brothers when his father died. He first took up a job as a private tutor and then became a teacher. Dickens was sent off to a blacking factory even earlier, when his father was taken away to the Marshalsea debtors’ prison. He managed to go to school later, but left at the age of 15 to work as a clerk and then became a reporter.
Both raise social issues that dogged their society. Both effectively use children as protagonists in their work. Both writers now have an iconic presence in the literature of their country.
What made these great writers so prolific? Dire straits I think! Here were great minds yes, but the drive to write came from a much more basic need—material needs that were required to be fulfilled. Most of us today, tapping away on our keyboards, cannot even imagine the compulsions which these authors operated under.
Who would you rate as the better chronicler of his times?
Ever noticed the similarities between Charles Dickens and our very own Munshi Premchand?
Yes, Dickens was English and Premchand was Indian, but they both were prolific writers and have reflected the harsh reality that marked their times in their work. Both have brought up common social issues in their body of work, and have left heart-rending imprints of their characters in the minds of their readers.
Dickens was born in 1812 in Hampshire in England, Premchand was born in a small village called Lamahi near Banaras. Both had relatively carefree childhoods which were rudely disrupted by incidents in the family. Dickens’ family sank into debt sometime after he turned five. Premchand’s childhood came to a sudden end at the age of 8, when his mother died.
Both of them had responsibilities thrust upon them early in life. Dhanpatrai (Premchand’s real name) had to manage his family, which included his wife, his step-mother and 2 step-brothers when his father died. He first took up a job as a private tutor and then became a teacher. Dickens was sent off to a blacking factory even earlier, when his father was taken away to the Marshalsea debtors’ prison. He managed to go to school later, but left at the age of 15 to work as a clerk and then became a reporter.
Both raise social issues that dogged their society. Both effectively use children as protagonists in their work. Both writers now have an iconic presence in the literature of their country.
What made these great writers so prolific? Dire straits I think! Here were great minds yes, but the drive to write came from a much more basic need—material needs that were required to be fulfilled. Most of us today, tapping away on our keyboards, cannot even imagine the compulsions which these authors operated under.
Who would you rate as the better chronicler of his times?
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)