Tuesday, October 29, 2013

Shubho Bijoya, a Winner and Giveaway #2

Sorry, Sorry, I am not only fashionably late but also embarrassingly late to wish you all a Shubho Bijoya. Though ideally one can extend the Shubho Bijoya greetings for a fortnight after Durga Pujo, all the way until Kali Pujo or Diwali, we always rushed around the myriad relatives' home trying to finish the pronams by Lokkhi Pujo, the day of the first full moon after Durga Pujo.

Ghugni and Narkel Naru for Bijoya

There were always a few people who came after Lokkhi pujo to finish the Bijoya formalities and Thama, my grandmother, had very little regard for them. She usually dismissed them as "ajkalkar chele pule" aka the modern generation which in her language meant people with little respect for tradition. "Eto dine shomoy holo ?", she would say in a disenchanted voice and utter a cursory blessing making very clear her displeasure. Not that her criticism or grumbling affected the latecomers in any way, except that they were given much inferior snacks as compared to those who had come in early. The quality of the snacks in most homes was inversely proportional to the number of days that had passed since the day of Dashami and this was one of the important reasons why we tried to finish off the pronam formalities early. I think the latecomers were not really fond of food or at least not what was served on "Bijoya", mainly variety of sweets and nimki and risked being late.

Sometimes however the wind blew in favor of the procrastinators. If Thama happened to be in the Puja room or had retired early to bed, my Mother and aunt would ensure that luchis were fried and sweets were bought from the Sweet store, half a block away to feed the guest.

Now, since procrastinators are always welcome on this blog, I have two happy news for them

The important news is that we have a winner from the last draw. A certain "RRDutta" whose real name I am unaware of and who left this comment "To make an Indian lunch for my single colleague who has just joined the workforce and doesn't seem to think he has enough money to buy lunch for himself everyday.", was the one picked by random.org. Now, I have sent her an e-mail but am yet to get a reply. Maybe my mail went into the spam folder or something. If I don't hear from her in the next two days, the prize will go to the second winner picked which is "Mausumi Ray" whose random act of kindness is "My random act of kindness was and will be donating money to CRY to sponsor food, education etc. for kids."




The far more important news is we have another Giveaway. yehhh. This time I am giving away Devapriya Roy's latest book "The Weightloss Club". Now, don't get mislead by the title. This is not a book to lead you through a guilt path while you are devouring a pound of Diwali laddos. "The Weight Loss Club" has nothing to do with weight loss unless you are reading it while running on the tread mill, which I suggest you better not do. For this book, is to be read in a proper setting, by the window, with a cup of tea, cell phone switched off, some hot off the fryer pakoris by the side.
It has been my great pleasure, to know the residents of the Nancy housing colony better as they go about their daily life spiked with love, anxieties, pettiness, joys and sorrows and to be a part of their journey with a touch of mystic and now you have a chance to win your copy.


I will select two winners for this giveaway. To win your copy tell me, if you have ever lived in a housing colony, then what was the best food memory or any other memory you carry from there.

Below is an interview with the intelligent, young author. More about her here 

You have published 2 books, writing your 3rd and as I gather from the author's page in your book "Devapriya Roy is pursuing a PhD on the Natyashastra (at least, that is what she says when asked what she does). Once upon a time, she was the Keo Karpin girl." Tell us then who you really are or what defines you?

Oh dear. This is definitely the toughest question. If I were to be entirely honest. I think, before all else, I am a reader. And I am a romantic. I mean, I have written the novels, I am working on the third book which has gouged out a large chunk of my twenties, but to me it still seems that the writerliness is incidental; an extension of the two things above – being a reader and a romantic. And also, being not very good at much else. I am hopelessly bad at management and stuff. I write because I cannot not write – there is that deep internal compulsion – but I am also aware of the uncertainties of writing. But one can always read; that world is abiding.

And perhaps because I see the world filtered through a novelist’s narrative (a very dangerous thing, I admit) I am often shocked and amused at the moral high ground that is claimed by our intellectuals. You know? I mean, if we were reading about them as characters in good novels, there would be so many other details about them, defining them, that the moral high ground would have a deeper perspective. That is not the case, of course, in contemporary discourse. So, strange as it sounds, in a manner of speaking then, I think I am defined by books and by narratives.

2. Your first book was "The Vague Woman's Handbook". A charming read if I might add. What made you throw Keo Karpin aside and write it? Was there a story brewing inside you for long?

The thing about the Keo Karpin business was that it was a one-off. I mean I could never really have moved to Bombay and followed up on it and eaten carrot sticks to become that person. I don’t think I am ambitious in that way. Instead, I got married on a whim and got a job as an editor. And that is when The Vague Woman’s Handbook happened. When I was younger, I always thought I would write The Book first. Yet another stab at the Great Indian Novel. Something that would take years and years to research. And basically never get written. 

Fortunately, I had a wise mentor. He told me to write something already; something closer to my life and impulses. And that was the finest piece of advice really. I was able to use all the autobiographical stuff in obvious ways first. So with The Weight Loss Club, these were characters I knew intimately. But none of them were from my own life. So that’s how The Vague Woman’s Handbook was written. It helped that I was no longer a student of literature. I had shifted to theatre and performance studies. I was now reading loads of popular fiction. But at the same time, I wanted to do things differently even within the realm of popular fiction. Mil might be a very young but rather acceptable chick lit heroine, a bit ditzy, but hers is not a quest for love. She has already found it. 

So, in a way, the Handbook begins where most chick-lit ends. Abhimanyu Mishra, with his eccentricities, idealism and poverty is not the ‘hero’ out of a typical chick lit either. Indira Sen is at least twenty years older than the usual best friend. And so on.  

3. Tell us a little about the process from writing to publishing. Were you knocking at doors with a jhola and manuscript in hand or was it the other way round and publishers were pursuing you waving Guccis and Louis Vuittons?

Luckily, I have been in the middle. The Handbook was commissioned on the basis of the first chapter and the proposal, so I was very fortunate. Did not have to knock doors with jhola and manuscript! It can be SO harrowing. However, I have never had publishers chasing me with Guccis or Louis Vuittons or more importantly Big Fat Advances. Sigh. I wonder if that will ever be. The only time I had someone from the publishing house chasing me was the editor of my second novel, Pradipta Sarkar, because she wanted the manuscript which had been delayed beyond belief. However, I must confess, my publisher Karthika does gift me many books. Better than bags, no?

4. Your second book The Weight Loss Club has an interesting set of characters and relations and an undertone of spirituality. Did you find it more difficult to write this book? From a technical point of view, how did you manage to manipulate all these characters so seamlessly like an expert puppeteer? I mean at any point would you get confused between Monalisa and Meera?


From a technical point of view, yes, certainly, it was more difficult than The Vague Woman’s Handbook. All the characters became demanding, and I felt guilty because some were obviously getting more airtime and some were more fun to write. But the truth is, they became like relatives. Mind you, not like friends but relatives. We are likely to be more blind to our friends than to our relatives. So I got to know them all really well. I had all their details charted out too, in notebooks. Their back stories and family trees. So there was never any confusion about the people in the book, who were all very different. But there was definitely a great challenge in moving their stories forward, keeping the individual climaxes secondary to the larger narrative and most of all, in keeping it pacy and readable. I do remember calling Pradipta and telling her, ‘Never ever ever let me write a book with so many people in it!.’


5.  There was a time when we read books because so-and-so said it was terrific and so-and-so's neighbor did not sleep all night to finish it. There were no videos or book advertisements as far as I remember. We just discovered books or books found us. On your blog at IBN Live you recently wrote couple of posts about the prolific young writers of India who come equipped with sharp marketing skills. Do you think "a lack of it" hampers your book sale in any way?

Certainly one’s willingness to be out there on social media, connecting and networking, and one’s fungibility in marketing oneself through traditional media are very important factors in books selling. In my case, my grapes-are-sourish blog posts are based truthfully – and bitterly – on what I feel about this conundrum.    

Some people have fantastic selling skills. They can sell refrigerators to Eskimos. These writers fall in the first category. They are building their own refrigerators now. But it is also true that they are finding new readers too. However, there are some people who can build excellent refrigerators, sustainable refrigerators, hell, they might build talking refrigerators but not be able to sell them to a Delhi consumer. 

So that is why they need others to do that for them. But unfortunately, the world needs refrigerators more than books it seems. Publishing houses do not operate on margins that will invest in fantastic and sustained marketing for new authors. Their large-scale marketing efforts are earmarked for the Big Names. Because the marketing budgets for books are based on the print-runs. So in a way, the Bengali proverb ‘tela maathaay tel’ is entirely accurate in the publishing context. Now, thanks to the example set by these clever MBA authors, the publishing houses also expect the authors to do the marketing themselves if they want to really sell their books.

My problem with this is that it directly dilutes the culture of writing. Time being limited, you can only spend so much of it to improve yourself as a writer, through reading and writing, or you can think up marketing strategies and shooting videos and jumping through hoops in the same time. It’s like telling a serious singer to learn the tango to star in their music videos or telling sportspeople to attend acting classes to perform better in their ads. All in the spirit of very good business sense. But it means that those without business sense will remain minor. Nothing wrong with that. But it is important to embrace this.  

6. What keeps you ticking and writing?
I think it is the world of ideas and books that keeps me writing; my husband who keeps me ticking. And of course, the sense of larger failure that one feels growing up and engaging with reality in a country like India, a young country but with so much to be done, that also contributes to perseverance. You know? It comes from that mishmash – failure and hope – hope and failure.

Wednesday, October 09, 2013

To Cook or Not to Cook during Durga Pujo

It is fun making menus when you don't have to cook them.

Of course it is more fun when you also get to eat them. And at times it is also fun to cook them.

But today when I decided to draw up menus for the three days of Pujo, it was with a feeling of liberation and lightheartedness, the kind that comes with "thinking of doing fanciful things" without actually doing any. Of course there are people who get no such feeling from "thinking and not doing" but fortunately I don't belong there. I am the one who "thinks-fancy-worries-a-lot-and-does-nothing". That gives me peace. Amen.

You, my dear friend, are very welcome to cook any or multiple of these to make the three days of Durga Pujo isspecial.You can also choose to not cook and have an eat out session instead. Makes it as special.



Saptami
******
Start the morning with some Kolkata Egg Roll from book

Lunch with
Rice
Cholar Dal (another version in book)
Oven baked Begun Bhaja
Doi Dharosh
Chicken in Mint, Coriander, Coconut gravy
Rui Maacher Dumpukht
Cranberry Relish

Snack with Chicken Keemar Chop

Dinner eat out

Ashtami
*******

Start with Hing er Kochuri and Alur Tarkari

Lunch with
Bhoger Khichuri
Niramish Aloor Dom
Paneer Korma
Anarosher Chaatni
Homemade Sondesh

Snack with some Bhejetebil Chop or Beguni from book

Dinner at Pujo Bari



Nabami
*******

Start the day with Keema stuffed Tomatoes

Lunch with
Rice
Bengali Fish Fry
Chingri Dhan Dhana Dhan
Halka Mangshor Jhol or Railway Mutton Curry
Tomato Khejur Chaatni from book
Narkel Naru


Dinner == Eno




দূর্গা পুজোর শুভেচ্ছা


Wish you all joy, peace and happiness of the season and don't forget the giveaway in my last post.

Devapriya Roy; famous author, Keo-karpin girl, scholar and lovely lovely person is also doing a giveaway of two of my books on her Heat and Dust project page. Statistically your chance of winning now is more.

Monday, October 07, 2013

The Giveaway # 1 -- paying it forward

This post was to be written on Mahalaya. But wasn't.

That is okay.



That does not take away the joy from this post. We are still hanging around Tritiya, the 3rd day of Navratri, which I think is a good time to say what I want to say. Which is that I wanted to talk about this guy.

I live in a bubble and had not heard of  Nipun Mehta until his recent speech at Harker's. His motto in life "to live simply, love purely, and give fearlessly" , seems to be so simple that you might think, "Yeah. So?" But then when you read about his "gift-economy" you might roll your eyes at his Utopian ideals and yet understand deep within that what he has done is not easy to pursue. Now, I really don't know the details beyond Wikipedia and his site of how he sustains himself  in this mode and if he already has some kind of a support structure to do what he does. What I know is,  I will never have the courage to do what he has done. And yet, I would love to.

His idea of "doing a small act of kindness" and "paying-it-forward"  is something that is probably imbibed in all of us but might be so deeply hidden that we don't get to show it everyday. This festive season, let us try to dig up that hidden gem and do just that. Small acts. Random nice acts. Anything to put a smile on the face of a stranger.

You all have shown me enough kindness when you supported me from all corners of the world for my book. You reviewed, left comments, constructively criticized and spread the word. You bought copies of my book, gifted them and came back to tell me all about it. To a bystander it might all seem very natural and matter-of-fact. But for a first time author, you all showed me immense kindness.

Now is my time to say "Thank You". If you want to play the "Pay-It-Forward" game, you are very welcome to spread your random act of kindness to people around you.

Here is all that you are going to do:

1. Leave a comment on this post. Mention your e-mail id and finish this statement "My random act of kindness was/will be   _________"
2. If you don't want to finish the statement, that is okay too, just leave a comment and your e-mail id.
3. Tell your friends and get them to join too.
4. Giveaway closes on October 14th.


Here is what I am going to do:

1. I will pick one random person from the ones who comment on this post.



2. That person will get a signed copy of my book


3....and an Amazon gift card worth $25

4. I will also contribute $25 towards the charity selected by him/her. The contribution will be made under the winner's name and not mine. Note: The charity should be a registered one, non-religious and should be able to receive online payment.

**The Amazon gift card is a global card and can be used wherever you are. However depending on your location Amazon may or may not ship certain things. That you can check with Amazon.You can also use it for buying digital entertainment stuff like apps and books for kindle.