Dr. Vivek Banerjee, the author of ‘The Long Road’ is a self-confessed “full time pediatrician (by choice) and part time author (by chance)”. Also known by his pen name Ben, for his blogs earlier, Vivek shares snippets of his writing career with us. Read on.   Could you share with us your earliest memories of writing? What got you blogging and finally writing a fictional tale? The earliest memories in writing are contr.....

“And when white moths were on the wing, And moth-like stars were flickering out, I dropped the berry in a stream And caught a little silver trout.”     From The Song of the Wandering Aengus     While Yeats was influenced by the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood and Shelley, there was a transient sense of his imagery moving across Irish folklore and Irish Nationalism.  Needless to say, he was influenced by the Irish my.....

  How well can you translate Gulzar’s works into English? Pavan K.Varma has walked the tight rope and gone on to do so. As a result, in a brand new bilingual poetry collection, we have Gulzar’s Hindi originals on the left side of the page, to Varma’s English translations of the same, on the right.   The story behind the book title goes like this: One day, after a long gap, Gulzar abruptly called up Varma and told him, &ldqu.....

Now we all want to access Facebook, Twitter and our personal email accounts from office. But in most organizations our kind bosses and even kinder management, put these websites in shackles. But Ankit Fadia’s new book, How to Unblock Everything on the Internet, which was recently launched in Crossword store, SB Road, explains how one could break open these virtual chains and access all the information you want.   Ankit Fadia, is a cyber securi.....

    The threat of a ban, the artist’s dissent, self-expression, it was all there, in between the uttered words, at the inaugural session of the Jaipur Literature Festival 2012. The session was aptly called, Bhakti Poetry: The Living Legacy.   After an introduction and welcome by Festival Producer Sanjoy Roy; poet, literary critic, academician and activist Purushottam Agarwal spoke on bhakti poetry over the ages. He talked about t.....

A graphic designer and copywriter by profession, Vibhuti Bhandarkar began blogging a few years ago and ended up churning a fast-paced and delightful collection of ten short stories, Not Totally Unbelievable. Talking about her life and her passion for writing, Vibhuti told us upcoming work as well. Read on.     Tell us a bit about your professional and personal background I was born and brought up in Mumbai, India. I was a student of G.D. Ar.....

Acceptance is something we all desire. To be appreciated and loved obviously comes after that. Queer writers R Raj Rao and Hoshang Merchant reflected upon how this very basic desire (that is often taken for granted by others) is something that does not come easy to queer writers. All this and much more was discussed at one of the sessions called Whistling In the Dark at the recently concluded Jaipur Literary Festival 2012. Hoshang Merchant threw li.....

I recently read about some cult literary traditions for literature fans. And I wish to share those with you today. But before I begin with the traditions and their essence, let me give you an idea of what literary tradition is. As I tumbled upon recently, literary tradition is a collection of works that have an underlying interconnectedness and coherence. It is not simply a group of works sharing geography or group. Writers may not belong to a particu.....

"The ego refuses to be distressed by the provocations of reality, to let itself be compelled to suffer. It insists that it cannot be affected by the traumas of the external world; it shows, in fact, that such traumas are no more than occasions for it to gain pleasure" – Sigmund Freud   Gallows humor could be incomprehensible to most people and I’m not being a snooty one at that if I say so. And gallows humor is not about be.....

  Friday, 20th January, 2012 Landmark, Pune:  I was recently invited to the book launch of two of the most awaited anthologies -  Urban Shots Crossroads and Urban Shots Brightlights.   I walked in to the store, towards the book launch area, recognizing a few familiar faces, and smiling at the new ones. I could sense the excitement. It reminded me of the launch of the first Urban Shots anthology by Grey Oaks and the launch of D.....