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My Friend Sancho

My first novel, My Friend Sancho, is now on the stands across India. It is a contemporary love story set in Mumbai, and was longlisted for the Man Asian Literary Prize 2008. To learn more about the book, click here.


To buy it online from the US, click here.


I am currently on a book tour to promote the book. Please check out our schedule of city launches. India Uncut readers are invited to all of them, no pass required, so do drop in and say hello.


If you're interested, do join the Facebook group for My Friend Sancho


Click here for more about my publisher, Hachette India.


And ah, my posts on India Uncut about My Friend Sancho can be found here.


Bastiat Prize 2007 Winner

Recent entries

Prodigy

I feel hugely sorry for this kid. In her world, it might be a huge deal to become “the…

Topless Women and the Indian Government

The Times of India reports: The government has banned Fashion TV for nine days after finding a program it…

The Hollywood Formula

Forget Robert McKee and Syd Field: If you want to learn how to make a successful Hollywood film, watch…

The Empire Strikes Back

Daniel Pepper of CMS has a worrying story up on how RTI activists in India are increasingly facing a…

When the Marshalls Go Marching In

This sentence says so much about the level of parliamentary debate in India today: Finally, marshals were called in…

10 April, 2007

God made smallpox!

There’s a fascinating debate on religion between Sam Harris and Rick Warren in Newsweek, in which this delightful exchange takes place:

Warren: I look at the world and I say, “God likes variety.” I say, “God likes beauty.” I say, “God likes order,” and the more we understand ecology, the more we understand how sensitive that order is.

Harris: Then God also likes smallpox and tuberculosis.

I think Harris the atheist comes off much better than Warren the believer in this debate, but the nature of these polarising discussions is such that if you’re a believer, you might agree more with Warren, even when he says things like “I talk to God every day.” I find the guy hilarious, though, especially when he tries to explain why Christianity is superior to other religions:

In 1974, I spent the better part of a year living in Japan, and I studied all the world religions. All of the religions basically point toward truth. Buddha made this famous statement at the end of his life: “I’m still searching for the truth.” Muhammad said, “I am a prophet of the truth.” The Veda says, “Truth is elusive, it’s like a butterfly, you’ve got to search for it.” Then Jesus Christ comes along and says, “I am the truth.” All of a sudden, that forces a decision.

Big deal. Here and now, on India Uncut, I announce:

I am the truth.

You decide now. Your favourite blogger or dead man with beard?

Posted by Amit Varma in Miscellaneous

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