VT’s blog

VS Naipaul is an interesting writer. He seldom minces words and can be candid to the point of sounding mean and insulting. A lot of people do not agree with a lot of his views. However, when it comes to quality of his writing, very few will disagree with the fact that he is brilliant.

In his recent book A Writer's People, Naipaul takes a dig at Indian writers; especially the 'one book wonder' new Indian writers who invariably write in English.

He says, and I quote " Nineteenth-century Russian writing created an idea of the Russian character and the Russian soul. There is no equivalent creation, or the beginning of one, in Indian writing. India remains hidden. Indian writers, to speak generally, seem to know only about their own families and their places of work. It is the Indian way of living and consequently the Indian way of seeing. The rest of the country is taken for granted and hence seen superficially "

Any takes on this? The (bold) statement sounds particularly interesting to me.

The visiting foreigner has been considered a dignitary in our Holy Indian Empire for Centuries, kind of a State Guest, if you like. That is rather nice, apart from the occasional rough edges that our otherwise polished country folks display.

Most of the foreign dudes get used to the curious stares and snide remarks. Our cabbies love taking them for a ride ' both literally and figuratively. The traffic light beggars have mastered the craft of looking hungrier-than-hungry when they spot a white skin inside that car. A whole parallel economy is built around the man from the foreign land.

Government of Kerala, over the last decade or so, has successfully created the "God's own Country" brand. One smart dude of a state minister actually was cool enough to make a candid confession: "Kerala doesn't want rag pickers and truck drivers from Paris flocking its beaches. It wants the Spenders, the 5 Star tourists." Honest confession indeed, coming from the one the last surviving Commie bastions in the World. Some food for Marxist thought, this.

I think we have, by and large, got over the Hippie-looking-for-Nirvana-and-Exotica, and the Holier-than-Thou-Sahib phase. 'The Beatles strumming the Sitar with Pundit Ravishankar' story is fast becoming one of those 'good old days' tales that doesn't find too many misty eyed listeners anymore.

Largely due to the great post-1990s 'Flattening of the World' that we are witnessing, the world is a global village more than it ever was. It is not surprising to hear the smart ass Product Manager from the US of A mention New York, Singapore and Bangalore in the same breath.

When he says that, he knows exactly what he is talking about. Take it or leave it, Bangalore rocks- complete with the 2 metre wide roads, traffic snarls, potholes and red-green-yellow plastic urns.

Of course, there are some dudes who still suck on the exotica of the 'Oh so Wise East'. Like the other day, this gentleman Andy, our client from some European country was listening wide eyed to our company PR manager lady, Ms. XXX. In between the beer and the glad smiles, I tried to figure out what they were talking about and heard the word 'Kamasutra'.

Now I knew; it was the 'Great Indian Exotica' on sale.

'Funny', I thought, 'all we wanted to sell these folks is some not-so-cheap-anymore Cyber Coolie service'. It seems the exotica were the complementary gift.

Loads of 'oohs', 'wows' and 'greats' followed. Then Andy got really very curious and asked me about my views on the great sex treatise."VT, what XXX says seems to be really exciting! You guys were writing sex treatise thousands of years ago?" asked Andy.

"Yeah Andy, we were way too cool in those days. Apart from writing sex treatise, we built temples with erotic sculptures too. Women had a say in the government. We did a whole lot of cool stuff with math and science." Andy was mighty impressed, before I showed him the anti-climax. "But somewhere down the line, over the last 1000 years or so, we Indians became totally un-cool morons, and we picked up un-cool practices like widow-burning, female infanticide and stuff like that."

"Wow. That is most interesting. Wow!" Andy likes to use a lot of wows.

"What is most interesting Andy? Us being cool dudes several Centuries ago, or us becoming screwed up rascals down the line?" Ms. XXX understood I was getting to the specifics now. She hates me for that. "Yeah, but things are changing now; they are changing indeed. Of course we now are on a sure-shot path to become super cool sooner than the world expects." I love it when Ms. XXX becomes so sensitive and so defensive.

The World is flat, after all. Andy was not too keen on the present day India. He has seen quite a lot of contemporary India and can qualify as a small-time Indophile.

He sure was curious about the exotica. "Hey VT, what Ms. XXX says, I am really curious about this Kamasutra thing. Wow, just imagine, a sex treatise written several thousand years ago."

It was my turn to throw some factoids loaded with attitude: "4^th Century AD, to be precise. There was this dude of a guru called Vatsayana who wrote that. A mighty flight of fancy, I must admit. Considering the time it was written at, must have been quite a porno in those days." Ms. XXX must have hated me here, 'The sarcastic Killjoy. Smart Ass.'

"See Andy, let's not suck too much on this entire series of bull crap that passes off as the 'Great Indian Exotica'. If you really ask me about that particular book called Kamasutra, may be I could have something to say, because it is supposed to be an erotic book. Reading a whole lot of pornography and erotic stuff has been my speciality for several years."

"I can say that that single biggest piece of over hyped horse-manure is this book called Kamasutra. By the way, are you a gymnast Andy?" Andy was not one.

"In that case, forget it. Kamasutra talks about sexual positions which only circus clowns and Olympic gymnasts will be able to perform."

"It's funny how we boast about the book, of all I know, no Indian is ever going to win any medal in gymnastics in the next 50 years or so. Of all the positions that the book talks about, I guess only about a half a dozen are physically possible for normal people. About the legendary hundreds of different types of kisses, the less said the better."

"It is perfectly understandable if you are reading some sex treatise purely for its 'novelty value', the fact that it was written long time back and all. Let's not treat is as a 'serious' manual. A bit of a curious reading, strictly for amusement, is fine, as long as you don't attempt any of that."

"I know opinions are like assholes, everybody has one, and some of them stink. Why don't you do one thing Andy, just cross the road across the pub and get yourself a copy today and check out the exotica."

PS: I usually try to avoid this PS business, but something tells me this post delves into a dangerous territory and I foresee a few chappals flying towards my iLand. Chappals are welcome as long as they are in pairs (i.e. usable!) and they are not accompanied by personal/snide remarks.

This post deals with two subjects, the 'Indian Exotica' and the Kamasutra.

I am more interested on iLanders' views on the relevance of the 'Indian Exotica' at the time when the World is fast becoming flat, as Thomas Friedman would like us to believe.

On the second subject, purely for the sake of information, I think “Sex: A User’s Guide” by Stephen Arnott is a better book. It educates, entertains and informs, sans all the hype.

Recently, my friend Umesh presented me a book called Stories at the Coffee Table. It is a collection of Short Stories.

The exciting thing about the book is that all the stories are written by bloggers like you and me. Some of you may already be aware of the concept; this piece is for the ones who are not.

The book contains stories representing varieties of genres, styles and subjects. Honestly, I was not aware that boggers like us could create such interesting stuff. Like all bloggers, the writers belong to different of locations, backgrounds and professions. Some of them use pseudonyms, some use their real names. They share their work through online forums, message boards and blogs.

The book has been brought together by an online network of writers called Caferati. They have newsgroups and forums spread across India and elsewhere. The members share their work, criticism, feedback and meet once in a while for read-meets.

I read almost all the stories in the book and found it a mixed bag, both in terms of quality of writing and content. Some stories where excellent, some were mediocre and quite a few were downright trash. But that is not the point. The point is that such a concept exists and people are able to share their views and express their love for the written word. And of course, have loads of fun through the process.

It is that fun, camaraderie and the sharing that keeps the keyboard ticking. We know we might never see each other in flesh, and that is perfectly fine.

Do spare that trip to the bookstore and get a copy of the book. It is worth the effort. (No, I have not been paid to publicise it.)

They have a website too - http://www.caferati.com