First was Dhimant Parekh, together with his wife Anuradha and their altogether delightful little son, Taksh. They were at the Oxford bookstore in the Leela hotel, Bangalore, on December 12, where I had a session with Shoba Narayan.
Dhimant was kind enough to give me a copy of his own book, Neumonia and Other Sketch Stories, which I recommend you read. My lone objection is that he refused to let me buy it, a blunder I intend to make him regret (ve haff our vays).
Dhimant later wrote a very kind post about our meeting, complete with a handwriting sample (mine): About a writer.
The other blogger was Sumedha J. She came to Crossword bookstore in Saket, Delhi, on December 15, when I was in conversation with Shormishtha Panja, Mani Shankar Aiyar and Nilanjana Roy. (The struggle of getting to and away from that Saket place made me appreciate the 50-60 folks who showed up even more than I would have ordinarily). Without either of us realizing it, it turns out that over the last 15 years, I've regularly visited a spot located no more than a few dozen metres from where Sumedha grew up. Apparently it ain't such a big world at all.
In any case, Sumedha decided to mention her Saket experience on her blog: Long Holiday Post.
Finally, there was a blogger I have met several times IRL. Aditya K found the time to turn up at two of my Bangalore book discussions -- at Reliance Time Out on December 10, and at Oxford on December 12. Unfortunately he could not bring his charming newlywed wife to either place since she had left town for a brief vacation.
Aditya blogged about the discussion at Reliance Time Out: Books that give answers.
PS: For you guys without a clue, IRL means "In Real Life". IMHO.
My mistake. Aayush of Scribbles and Stories was at Saket as well. Aayush admitted in public that when he was a journalism student, I once lectured to his class. Word's still out on how much trouble this has landed him in, in his job.
But seriously, thank you for coming, Aayush. Meant something to me to see you there.
11 comments:
Dileep
You rock!!
*Dilip ;)
Any idea if/when the book will be available in the US?
Yeah -- Saket was a hard place to get to even with everyone singing Christmas songs inside to cheer up the weary mallionaires. Quick scan in through the metal detector, felt safe! On the way out some folks were strolling in going the wrong way, ignoring the guard, who reciprocated. Felt ...??! Obviously trained by TSA-USA.
Hey you didn't count me in! I was present at the Delhi launch and am the same guy from XIC, Bombay
Ring a bell?
Aayush, of course I remember! Sorry I didn't include you. Probably because I don't know you as a blogger. I'll add a PS right away.
AmOK, were you there too? Why didn't you say hi?
pso: there is no US edition (and I hope the operative word is "yet"). It is available with online sellers who will gladly ship to the US -- I will put up a list soon. I presume it will eventually also be on amazon, let's see.
Thank you for mentioning me. :) I'm very glad I came, and I'm still reading the book (the first few weeks of a new semester don't allow for much reading time). And yes, the world is becoming quite a small place.
Thanks for the kind post Dilip. It was really wonderful to have met up at the Oxford Bookstore.
It is apparent to me that the top Indian bloggers have formed a mutual admiration club. This is obvious because they all need each other to promote their books.
It was the same when Amit Varma's Sancho book came out. The book was so shamelessly being promoted by Varma on his blog and his blogging comrades that I no longer have the same regard for his and his buddies' blogs.
Dilip is a fascinating writer no doubt. I have been following his writings for years (ever since I read one of his columns on Rediff).
But this kind of "you scratch my back, I will scratch yours" thing going on among the bloggers which Dilip seems to have become part of is a huge put off.
That being said, I just read Aayush's not-so kind review of the Roadrunner and I thought may be not all is wrong with the above picture. (At the same time wondering about the real reason of Mr D'Souza missing out of mentioning his name earlier in his blog post).
At the same time wondering about the real reason of Mr D'Souza missing out of mentioning his name [Aayush Soni] earlier in his blog post.
Wonder no more. This blog post went up on Jan 6. Aayush's went up on Jan 8.
It would not have been fair to Aayush to mention his post before he posted it.
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