It began with a well-executed burglary.’ The lively poet at the festival is ‘lost and disconsolate’ when he sees the literary world ‘full of privileged hierarchies and lucky chances, of winning streaks and downward spirals of defeat and heart break.’
He has travelled widely, cavorted with celebrities, vacationed frequently and consumed copious quantities of vodka. The text makes little attempt to temper this presentation, leaning into the spectacle of a life lived large. But it unfortunately becomes the most glaring issue in the book—the repetitive references to luxurious hotels and expensive food and brands. It is tiring and begins to feel shallow rather quickly. In ‘An Accident Foretold: Goa’, their hotel’s name—Taj Holiday Village—is cited so frequently that it begins to feel less like a setting and more like a refrain.
The original Panchatantra story has the typical lion waiting to devour a jackal. It’s a play of wit between the King of the Forest and the most wily creature in the jungle. In Bhatia’s modern version, the lion does not enter the fragile cave of the jackal because he may simply bring down the structure, so he devices a ‘plan’. Since he is the chief of the ‘Jungle Planning Commission recently renamed Neeti Vanyog’, the members of the King’s Cabinet round up a random bunch of painters, art collectors, print makers, and start an Art Camp.
Vasudev dissects how Indian leaders craft public image through clothing. From Prime Minister Modi’s signature kurtas to Kangana Ranaut’s elegant sarees, politicians dress for the public in ways the public rarely does. Is their apparent indifference to fashion trends genuine, or calculated to suggest that priorities lie beyond style, with the ‘real issues’ of the public? Indian netas favour ‘traditional’ handloom, cotton, and khadi to project authenticity. But is it a genuine connection, or hypocrisy for voters who can no longer afford these fabrics?
Seven Leaves, One Autumn: the very title is poetic, evoking the vivid shades of yellow, orange and red through which autumn leaves pass as they turn from green to brown. This collection brings together the work of seven award-winning women poets: Zohra Saed from Afghanistan, Julie Boden from Britain, Clara Janes from Spain, Kishwar Naheed from Pakistan, Ute Margaret Saine from the USA, and the two editors, Savita Singh and Sukrita Paul Kumar, both from India.
Subsequently, Bahu Begam consented to abandon the remains of her wealth to the Company, and emerged as one of the largest individual investors in British India’s public debt. This action demonstrated not only the willingness of the Company to reinstate the Nawab but also its anxiety to be recognized as a sovereign state in the South Asian political order, and its dependence on the financial and political capital of women like Bahu Begam.