Slaughterhouse Extract

The visitor from outer space made a gift to Earth of a new Gospel. In it, Jesus really was a nobody, and a pain in the neck to a lot of people with better connections than he had. He still got to say all the lovely and puzzling things he said in the other Gospels.
So the people amused themselves one day by nailing him to a cross and planting the cross in the ground. There couldn't possibly be any repercussions, the lynchers thought. The reader would have to think that, too, since the new Gospel hammered home again and again what a nobody Jesus was.
And then, just before the nobody died, the heavens opened up, and there was thunder and lightning. The voice of God came crashing down. He told the people that he was adopting the bum as his son giving him the full powers and privileges of The Son of the Creator of the Universe throughout all eternity. God said this From this moment on, He will punish horribly anybody who torments a bum who has no connections!

- Kurt Vonnegut - Slaughterhouse 5

why not write in hindi

I was introduced to hindi literature at the age of 27, by that time already having read tonnes of books in english. I always felt that english writing coming out of india was somehow lacking in that something which gives a book its soul...it sounded a little strained....and I wished it was more relevant to my life. Amitav Ghosh and Upamanyu Chatterjee were exceptions to the rule I felt but still some of their later books let me down. I used to wonder why noone wrote about the indian experience and why there was no true indian voice yet.

When I read Manohar Shyam Joshi, or Nirmal Verma or some newer Hindi authors I realised that what I was searching for was right under my nose. The evocations of delhi or lucknow or mumbai or even the small towns in their books was so masterly and true, it struck home immediately. I explored a bit and found that there was a vast sea of hindi literature which was vibrant, relevant, brutally honest and amazingly talented. It spoke to me and spoke for me.

So if anyone is thinking of writing in Hindi and wondering what will the morrow bring. Will he be living in the chawls of mumbai and ekeing out a miserable existence, I think that is a fallacy. A writer must find his voice first, not worry about which language will have better readers. Speak the tongue that comes naturally to you. There is no dearth of opportunity. The movies, the serials, the magazines, the websites, the tv channels all are hungry for content. If you create good content, it will sell. To create good content though you must find your voice.

I, being as my flatmate once charmingly observed, "very compromising" had tried to figure a way which combined the best of both worlds. So you can write like this too -

itni saari debate faaltu mein ho rahi hai. jo man mein aata hai usko keh daalo. Dont worry ki usko kaise chhaapenge. Arrey yaar, aajkal to chhaapne ki zaroorat bhi nahi rahi....hum ko dekh lo...kitna likhte hai aur ek drop ink use nahi kya abtak :)

sacred games

vikram chandra returns with sacred games...heres what the guardian had to say

If I was sorry to learn that Mumbai police do not talk in the language of their newspapers (where miscreants are always nabbed red-handed in the nick of time), then I was grateful for my full-blooded lesson in Hindi curses. All are brilliantly embedded so that every meaning is clear, a remarkable achievement. Anthony Burgess once did a similar job for Russian in the teenage argot of A Clockwork Orange, but his publisher insisted on a glossary, against Burgess's better judgment. Chandra manages without. Next time some maderchod Mumbai tapori tries to cheat me, he'd better watch out. My tongue is gonna be sharper than one of Ma Singh's lime pickles.

Manohar Shyam Joshi no more

A legend in the indian literary world has left us today. Though some would say that he wasnt up there with the famous literary giants of India, few would argue about the reach and impact his writing had in India. From popular television serials, to film stories, to editing a popular hindi weekly to writing a bunch of hindi books he left a lasting imprint in the mind of three generations of indians. No one has captured the flavor of bombay like he did in his book "kuru kuru swaaha" and no one has written more beautifully about the simple life in the small towns of the himalayas where he was born and raised. All through his writing there runs a vein of self deprecatory humor, a flair for hyperbole and farce mixed with a tinge of pathos and romance. Through it all, his writing rings true, he knows what he writes about and hold up a clear mirror for society to see itself.

Manohar Shyam Joshi, R.I.P.
NEW DELHI, MAR 30 (PTI)
Renowned writer Manohar Shyam Joshi,the litterateur, aged 73, breathed his last at around 5 am at the National Heart Institute here.

Joshi has written several books including 'Kuru Kuru Swaha', 'Kayap' 'Hariya Hercules Ki Hairaani', Baton Baton Main', 'Mandir Ghat Ki Pooriyan', 'Kaise Kissago' and 'Tata Professor'.