The Vivekean Times

If Dan Brown had joined the Jaipur literary festival he would have been greeted with huge fanfare and the red carpet would have been laid out for him by both the state and central governments. Chetan Bhagat would be heaping praises on him and his works, and protests if any would be too weak to mention. Every author reading his works would become best-selling authors and no one would even think of arresting them. But why should it be otherwise, you might ask? He didn’t do anything wrong, did he? I mean, you would say, what Salman Rushdie wrote in Satanic Verses hurt the religious sentiments of Muslims and so it was justifiably banned. None of Dan Brown’s books were banned. And therein lies the root of the issue. Why wasn’t “The Da Vinci Code” banned (I have a borrowed copy of the work lying at my home at present) and the movement of the author restricted? Didn’t the Da Vinci Code hurt the religious sentiments of Catholics around the world? Then why didn’t the state and central gove...

(As it appeared in the January edition of the BandraBuzz, a local newspaper in Mumbai.) Literature lovers were treated to a unique literature carnival last month at Mehboob Studios, Bandra. Mumbai Fully Booked, the Times of India’s literary carnival was a resounding success. Large crowds of Mumbaikars thronged this historic site on the first weekend of December. There were many established writers, first-time and would-be authors, media personalities, publishers and journalists present on these days. The attendees of these events basically wanted to catch a glimpse of their favourite authors and media personalities, and possibly even meet them. International and deshi celebrities included William Dalrymple, Ekta Kapoor, Mohammad Hanif, Chetan Bhagat, Vinod Mehta, Tarun Tejpal, Bachi Karkaria and Vikram Chandra. Many were keenly interested in the intellectual debates between the authors such as “Sex in the City” where four authors discussed stories of love and sexual relationships ...