The universe in a basekt: that’s what one would love to call this beautifully done up anthology of interviews, snippets, snapshots, chit-chat, profiles, psychic flow charts of seven Indo-English writers of eminence: Shashi Deshpande, Shama Futehally, Gita Hariharan, Anuradha Marwah Roy, Mina Singh, Lakshmi Kannan and Anna Sujatha Mathai.
Looking In, Looking Out, Shanta Acharya’s third poetry collection, houses fifty-two poems, representing work over a decade. Most of these poems have appeared in journals and anthologies, internationally. The title defines the theme of the collection — the poet and her environment.
These two volumes of poetry need to be noticed for more than one reason. This is perhaps the first time that the Sahitya Akademi has published English writings. This is truly welcome in poetry, where even established poets struggle to find publishers.
Isabel Dalhousie is the literary descendant of Emma Woodhouse in Jane Austen’s eponymous novel. Like Miss Woodhouse, Miss Dalhousie is a lady of comfortable means, solidly upper middle class and with an interest in people which the uncharitable would say borders on the “meddlesome”. But there the comparison ends.
Being fungible is a key trait of today’s highfliers, in the arena of job profile at least. Don’t we love to rant about sportsmen, particularly cricketers, delving into the realm of Bollywood when they appear in commercials and even TV serials and films? But what about Bollywood actors delving into the realm of sports,
Anita Nair’s new novel is a book on relationships, told in many voices, going back and forth in time, across continents. It is a book which deals with infatuations and obsessions across the gulfs of religion, marriage, legitimacy and conventions.