The Secret Life of A National Geographic Writer!!!

According to Reuters, "Police in Kathmandu find contraband artifacts and animal hides in the rented properties of a U.S. adventure writer. The illegally possessed goods were seized after police received a tip off. Authorities say it is one of the biggest hauls they have ever recovered. The items were found in the rented property of adventurer and writer Ian Baker, who has lived in Nepal for many years. Baker has written several books and contributed to National Geographic and other magazines."

Rafta, Rafta...

"Scott Elliott's production of Ayub Khan-Din's "Rafta, Rafta ...,"
which opened last night at the Acorn Theater, is intimate in a way
that prying video cameras can never be. Set in a working-class
neighborhood of transplanted Indian families in Bolton, England, this
tale of a beleaguered honeymoon exposes its characters' foibles, and
very little of their flesh, with gentleness and compassion," says a
New York Times review.

"And the plot of "Rafta, Rafta ...," adapted from "All in Good Time,"
a Bill Naughton comedy from the 1960s, sounds like an extended blue
joke, or the basis for a sniggery sitcom: Young man takes virginal
bride home to live with the family, then finds himself unable to
consummate the marriage because Mom, Dad and Little Brother keep
interrupting and distracting him.

The title translates from Hindi as "slowly, slowly." And this
production understands it takes time for people to get to know and
accept one another. That includes an audience and a set of onstage
characters. In an era of faster-is-better entertainment "Rafta, Rafta
..." is notable for its winningly slow hand," writes the reviewer Ben
Brantley in this review titled, "No Sex, Please, We're British
Indians."

For those that enjoy theater, this promises to be a good show...

Read the full review at--
http://select.nytimes.com/mem/tnt.html?emc=tnt&tntget=2008/05/09/theater/reviews/09raft.html&tntemail0=y

The power of a brand..

Jhumpa Lahiri is no doubt a fantastic writer. What is even more
powerful than her writing today is the "brand" that has encompassed
her work. Lahiri is now one of the most powerful brands in the
literary world. Her book is now on the New York Times bestseller list.

"Lahiri, an author in the literary genre, has become so popular that
Knopf has reportedly printed 300,000 copies of her latest book,
similar to the amount of copies printed for books by popular fiction
authors like John Grisham," this is from a piece that I wrote for Idol
Chatter.

All the reviews of her latest book Unaccustomed Earth have been
fantastic, taking a powerful writer to even more heights, than she
could have ever imagined. Perhaps the only review that is critical of
her work with surprising logic is the one at www.Desicritics.org says
"Reading the collection of short stories by Jhumpa Lahiri in
Unaccustomed Earth is like unwrapping layer upon layer of a much
anticipated gift only to find a mundane trinket in the end. Lahiri
seems to take perverse pleasure in playing bad Santa who stuffs the
stockings of her readers with coal, when in fact she could have easily
gratified us with eight beautiful presents. I am not entirely sure why
she would want to do what she does with unerring success story after
story. Is this by design or an unintended consequence?"

Read the full review at --
http://desicritics.org/2008/04/20/114322.php

Read the Idol Chatter piece about Lahiri becoming a pop-culture icon at--
http://blog.beliefnet.com/idolchatter/2008/04/jhumpa-lahiri-a-new-pop-cultur.html

Some glowing reviews and interviews with Lahiri can be read at the links below--
http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200802u/jhumpa-lahiri
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/04/books/04Book.html?ref=review
http://www.tnr.com/politics/story.html?id=b458594b-ac96-4572-8b8b-bedcd27bbf5e
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=89236881

The Road Not Taken...

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I--
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

Robert Frost, The Road Not Taken
US poet (1874 - 1963)

Read the full poem at --
http://www.bartleby.com/119/1.html

Food and Memories from India...

Todays New York Times magazine has a really nice article by Kiran
Desai, about nostalgic memories from India.

An excerpt from this piece--
"In the afternoons, as the rest of the family slept the sodden sleep
of a hot climate, I would tiptoe into the kitchen. Saratbhai would be
napping on the even hotter rooftop, among the rows of earthenware pots
he placed there to cool the concrete.

My mother was amused by this interest of mine. She preferred to spend
her time among her books, a collection that traveled all the way from
floor to ceiling. For an Indian woman, her lack of meddling in the
kitchen was remarkable and weird. Saratbhai boasted about it to the
others in the community of harassed, bullied cooks. It gave him
status. He was our kitchen deity.

But now his artistry was being snubbed by a child, by tastes from
abroad that he could not gauge or understand, gleaned from a book he
could not read. An uncertain world where Western was better than
Indian, where the young ridiculed the old — a world for which he
didn't have skills to cope might pour into his kitchen and undo our
home and his dignity within it."

Read the full article at --
http://select.nytimes.com/mem/tnt.html?pagewanted=2&tntget=2008/02/10/magazine/10food-t.html&tntemail0=y&emc=tnt

Muse and the Marketplace on NPR

Read the transcript on WBUR's Morning Edition

http://www.wbur.org/news/2007/67091_20070511.asp

Excellent Quote!

A good many young writers make the mistake of enclosing a stamped, self-addressed envelope, big enough for the manuscript to come back in. This is too much of a temptation to the editor.
- Ring Lardner

This makes it even easier in the world of e-mail right, to hit the reply button with a form letter that says thanks but not thanks!!!

Finding My Muse

This weekend I was at a writers conference in Cambridge, I am always amazed at how many writers there are out there, in spite of the fact that they hardly make any money, unless of course they are a John Grisham, Dan Brown or a Vikram Chandra. Most of them hold full time day jobs ranging fro IT to waiting tables, but they continue to make time to pursue their passion. I want to dedicate this post to those hardworking writers out there who keep chugging away at what they love to do!

Create, Energize, Enrich!!!

I just returned from 3 days of hob-nobbing with fellow desi writers, at the Kriti conference in Chicago. What a wonderful experience it was. More than anything the energy and enthusiasm that was flowing was fantastic, the quality of work was excellent.

Most of all I was touched by the desire of the participants to write and their love for the craft. Many, like myself if I might add, have quit high paying jobs and lucrative careers to pursue their dream. And besides those lucky ones, like myself, who have a pouse to support us through these times, there are an amazing group of people who hold full time day jobs and then make time to moonlight as writers.

Hats off to these folks who are excellent at what they do and are pursuing their dreams, come what may... Full steam ahead!!!!

Kriti Conference in Chicago

For fans of South Asian literature, Kriti will be a four-day event celebrating South Asian and diaspora literature, with panel discussions, performances, readings, music and song, storytelling for kids, and much more! I have the honor of being a panelist this year, and am looking forward to four days of fun, education and interaction with like-minded folks.

Visit their website forcomplete details -- http://www.desilit.org/kriti.html