Browse Archives
By Category
By Date
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.
Recent entries
Ah, modern times. Check out these two amazing news headlines: Community ostracises woman touched by outsider Muslims on social…
Just back from the Galle Lit Fest, rested, and all set to resume blogging. Let me begin with the…
In a few hours, I’m off to the Galle Literary Festival. Blogging will be light till I’m back in…
Reader Ruchir Khare writes in to point me to this passage from the Johann Hari piece on Dubai that…
The WTF statement of the week comes from a Dubai cop: The woman confessed that she had sexual intercourse…
16 December, 2008
Zen And The Art Of Mumbai Maintenance
The comment of the day comes from a Dilip D’Souza post in which Dilip asks why people in India are angry about 26/11, but haven’t demonstrated the same outrage for 1984, 1992-3, 2002 etc—a worthy rhetorical question. Anyway, an (unfortunately) anonymous commenter writes:
Dilip, lets be honest. Nobody is angry. People are watching Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi in record numbers. Everybody’s planning for New Year party. Celebrations are on in full swing. Who is angry ? Of course if you purposely go to some angry gathering you will find some angry people, but that is a tautology. By & large, Mumbai carries on just the same.
Karachi trains a person to kill 17 Indians on average. Send 10 such persons, you get 11/26. What if they sent 100 such persons ? Then also nothing will happen. People will watch Chandni Chowk to China in record numbers and get on with life.
Your city is beyond anger, cynicism, disgust, beyond all human emotions. Mumbai has achieved what Buddhist monks call Zen. Nothing or nobody can make you angry. Say Karachi sends 1 lakh persons tomorrow on some Cruise ship to Mumbai. Each one takes on 17 Indians. 17 lakh Indians will be minus. The rest will watch Billo Barber.
I love the last line. I don’t actually agree with the comment—people in Mumbai are getting on with their lives because we have no choice, not because we feel no emotion—but that’s a minor quibble.
Posted by Amit Varma in
India
