Books

Stare at it like Chuck Norris

CP Surendran

A political thriller that drives you to death by drinking. But desperately dull writing demands desperately dire counter measures

In Conversation with Meghnad Desai

Rahul Jayaram

Economist Meghnad Desai on the fun he had—despite the many challenges—while writing his first work of fiction titled ‘Dead on Time’

‘Yes, I Don’t Like Pakistan’

Salman Rushdie

Salman Rushdie speaks of a failure called Pakistan, and why his lawyer told him proving Indira Gandhi was not of good character was the only way to save his skin

The Long Bore

Rahul Pandita

The story is about the author’s father who travels down memory lane beginning from pre-Partition Hindustan, and everything else afterward

Critical Condition

Suhit Kelkar

Last fortnight, Arvind Krishna Mehrotra was nominated for the chair of Professor of Poetry at Oxford. Here, he lambastes English literary sensibility in India

New Book, Old Murthy

Binoo K. John

The book is a collection of his speeches and, unlike his colleague Nilekani (who wrote Imagining India), does not work on a roadmap for India

What Orwell Owes to Motihari

Dhirendra K. Jha

The great novelist was born in Bihar. Who cares to remember? None, if the derelict state of his house is any indication

Riot and Wrong

Khushwant Singh

As the Jarnail Singh incident reminds us, the 1984 anti-Sikh riots still rankle. This essay from Khushwant Singh’s Why I Supported the Emergency explains why