NavDharmyug

“ What chance would the craftiest biographer stand against the subject who saw him coming and decided to amuse himself .” – Wrote Julian Barnes about Gustave Flaubert , in Flaubert’s Parrot ( Click here to read review ) , a semi-biographical fiction on Flaubert. Essentially his point is let the writer be, as a person, that is. Jane Austen makes for an even difficult person to be traced. Mr. Austen Leigh (Jane Austen’s nephew) wrote about her, “ I doubt whether it would be possible to mention any other author of note whose personal obscurity of was so complete.” It sure does help when we consider the work of a writer which defined the way we looked at things for generations to come. That is the reason having spent one chapter arguing against it, Barnes ended up writing Flaubert’s Parrot and I end up writing here about Jane Austen. But this is not a biography, not even a biographical note (which can be found on Wiki - Link here ), rather a homage and an ode.   ...

The First Muslim - By Lesley Hazleton " The fibers of  our secular hearts are bent and bowed beneath unaccustomed tempest."- Virginia Woolf - English Prose. Ms. Woolf wrote the above sentence in some other context. I find it truer today than any day earlier. The fanatic fundamentalism is on rise, not in India, rather world-wide. Last week, we saw shooting in Orlando, which killed fifty people. The shooter, claimed allegiance to ISIS and asserted that he committed the act of terror as his service to Islam. In today's time, it is very difficult to be objective and to even mention the word without being ready to face a barrage of Bigot!, Islamophobe! and such, if you are lucky. If you are unlucky, you can, well, look forward to a bunch of gun-yielding crazy guys breaking into your place, hacking you to death.  It is extremely courageous for Lesley Hazleton to chose to write about Muhammad, his life and his journey to the launch of the largest religion on th...

Human Rights Watch has published a scathing report titled "India: Stop Treating Critics As Criminals"  (Click to read)  on the the ways, it posits India handles dissent. When I objected to it on Twitter, Ms. Meenakshi Ganguly from HRW told me that this refers to the colonial laws and not to the current political dispensation and also is not particular about India but such reports are prepared for other countries (particularly colonial countries as she would say). I asked her that by the definition of colonial it would also include US and Pakistan and asked her links to report on these two countries, which is awaited.  For some reason, there has been a tendency to broad-brush India as such of late. I saw particularly scathing, and largely unsubstantiated articles in newspapers like Guardian when Indian PM Narendra Modi was to travel to the UK. They would innocently appear when Modi was to interact with the west in International papers, and when there was an...

To doubt, to debate, to negate, counter and argue is the greatest virtue of human mind. It is a pity that we have long since forgotten taking a position. Then, one might argue, why should one take a position- any position? Why do I have to side with any truth which I have not discovered myself.   The people are divided into large masses, a huge chunk of human sea, split by diverse conviction.   Social media which was invented as a platform to share one’s own convictions has long since been reduced to a virtual battleground. A converse opinion is responded with  a feral violence. I do not feel happy anymore about debates. They aren’t debates.   There can’t be any debate without decency. The world is fractured and it demands that I lean to one side or the other.   Why must I surrender my right to be an individual and join a group to seek strength in number? Why there are no debates which either converts my opponents or me? We are fast turning into a wor...

Non-fiction and fiction make different demands on the writer. One takes spine, the other -heart. There is no character to hide behind in non-fiction. It is the writer speaking in active voice and risks being wrong, and that is an eternal danger.  The words you write are etched in time for eternal ridicule, hatred or rarely- adulation. You cannot and must not deny having written them. Even if wrong, you hold on to them like a wayward child of a loving father who is blinded by paternal love. It is worse, you cannot disown them. When you find yourself wrong, you have to bring to life another child of yours as a counter-point.  You can't disown and simply walk away. You can't claim never having  written it , you can't claim mis-interpretation. You have to pay for your words with sadness and shame. You are a writer, not a politician. You are a step away from sainthood. You have chosen for hard life and hard punishments in exchange of a right to speak out truth as you...