Bookasur

What does one learn from years of reviewing books? And what does one make of a book that defies easy reviewing? Easy, this reviewer picks up the book and goes deeper into it, and then talks of what distinguishes a book reader from a reviewer - along with some rants about the never-ending pressure to keep up.

This is episode #25 of Bookasur, talking about frogs in wells, Strange Horizons (and walls), publicity, and some free advice on choosing your next book to read. This is also the finale of Season 1 of Bookasur, so we will take a break after this episode, and return renewed and fresh when life brings us back here.

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Murder comes in many flavours, and so does the murder mystery. In this episode, we talk about the various ingredients that go into making a successful mystery story - and we pick up one such Indian experiment that follows the template but breaks new ground. And then, we pick up a classic of the genre and talk about its sly self-referential nature.

This is episode #24 of Bookasur, talking about Dashiell Hammett, Carrie, pedicures, a set of headphones that’s about to give up the ghost, and  plans for a season finale.

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Two literary superstars, one in Gujarati, one in Hindi. Their short stories won them lakhs of followers. Both deserve more attention than they got outside their language readers. But thanks to translations, there are now chances for us to explore these stories.

This is episode #23 of Bookasur, talking about Virgina Woolf, literary magazines, a new poet, and a sin that’s savourless.

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Writers spend years researching and understanding the settings of their books - and when this is done right, the book really shines. This is an aspect that doesn’t get the respect it deserves in Indian genre fiction. In this episode we talk of two books that bring out their respective milieus - modern Mumbai through a cop’s eyes, and Mughal-era Delhi through a nobleman’s, through extensive research.

This is episode #22 of Bookasur, talking about Shivaji Park and Bandra Bandstand, Shahjahanabad, Brother Cadfael, and Amar Akbar Anthony.

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We’re seeing more books in English that depart - and expand - the western/European/Christian canon of fiction that feels very narrow in today’s day and age. This is especially true for fantastic fiction, and today we talk of two books that stretch the boundaries to India and Africa, and show just how the fantastic fits in with a new set of values - and a new set of readers.

This is episode #21 of Bookasur, talking about ghosts in walls, post-modern vs modern horror, unnerving folk tales, epic cities and a girl made of water.

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Let’s make it clear: Not all novels about childhood are for kids - even the pleasant ones. But reading about our golden childhood years in our adulthood gives us satisfaction like perhaps nothing else. In this episode, we talk about two books that recapture those years and make us nostalgic for a time, a place, and a certain light of day.

This is episode #20 of Bookasur, talking about Ribbon Pakodas, Bangalore weather, Happiness Machines, Swami and Friends, and the inevitable grandfather.

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We had World Translation Day last week. So, this time we pick up two books, both translated, both from Malayalam, both literary fiction, both by the same publishing house, published within a couple of months of each other, and talk about how different they are. Hey, if there’s so much variety just between these two, think of what other wonders are to be found on the bookshelves of Indian literature!

This is episode #19 of Bookasur, talking about Don Camillo, the difference between cocks and roosters, the Emergency, and longing for home.

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Short stories are an enjoyment all their own. And especially when we want to explore a genre, or see multiple facets of a writer’s work, they’re the way to go. Genre and Weird fiction has been the ground for exploration of this form - today let’s talk of two books that give you a flavour that long form fiction just cannot.

This is episode #18 of Bookasur, talking about the spaces between Ghalib, U R Ananthamurthy, the Deccan Herald Short Story Contest, and Bangalore roads.

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Remember when we had all the time in the world to read, as kids, but never found books that were about us? Now that we don’t have the time, we have publishers in India really going for it, publishing cool kids’ stuff left and right. Let’s pick up two of these new breed of kids-oriented non-fiction books that show us India through fresh eyes.

This is episode #17 of Bookasur, talking about Misha the Russian magazine, Chambal dacoits, Diwali rockets, and sculptures.

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Office jobs don’t feature in fiction quite as much as we’d like to, perhaps because it isn’t cool to be good at our job and just earn money, maybe? But today we’re picking up two books that riff off aspects of the office experience and take them in very different directions. Good fiction comes from our own lives, always.

This is episode #16 of Bookasur, talking about Corner House, Bangalore, Virtual Reality aids to music, surrendering insurance polices, and missing husbands.

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Those who don’t read History are condemned to read WhatsApp forwards. On the occasion of Independence Day, let’s talk about how to approach our our past, and how to make sense of it. Today we discuss two books that recreate that past out of multiple sources, and give us a baseline to build on.

This is episode #15 of Bookasur, talking about a legendary Tamizh king, an annoying-endearing Hindi song about history, and how feedback from friends should be handled (by ignoring most of it).

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Crazy times. Crazy enough, in fact, that it felt strange to want to just talk about random stuff. But, prompted by questions from a few friends, that's what I did in this episode. Tune in for a fun bunch of recommendations (not to mention a couple opinionated rants). 

This is episode #13 of Bookasur, talking about Asterix, Rani Laxmibai, Colonial Bengal and Mughal-era India, not to mention the average number of books that people read in their lifetime. 

Books featured: Dozens of them. What, you want to list them all here? 

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These days, we’re all thinking about sickness and pandemics - but these have been around for a long time in various forms. With them, have been men and women dedicated to healing, as well as unexpectedly human stories of extraordinary courage. Today, we talk about a new translated book about three generations of doctors, and then a classic book that speaks of the breakdown of civilisation due to a pandemic.

This is episode #13 of Bookasur, talking about mist rising like chloroform, the Spanish Flu, a pretended blindness, and success in your sixties.

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Fantasy is a genre built out of many, many, components that come from all over. In India we’re seeing a resurgence of a fantasy tradition that rebuilds mythology and borrows liberally from western traditions. Today we talk about one of these books that creates a rich story out of all these elements. Then we discuss a project that overlays sci-fi with an Indian epic, with startling results.

This is episode #12 of Bookasur, talking about Arthurian legend and Gorkha training camps and The Matrix, not to mention Sholay, A. K. Ramanujan, and the surprisingly human core of Indian sci-fi.

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What we’re scared about is what goes into our Horror fiction. Today we talk about fiction that builds the base on what the genre is composed of, and then look at another book that’s the result of 40+ years of working in the genre.

This is episode #11 of Bookasur, talking about ghostly doctors and paranormal sightings and also a phone that brings in the world - and the otherworld - in an understated, beautiful friendship. Not to mention nostalgic sightings in second hand book piles.

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Man made God in his own image - but then turned Him into something else, until a writer turned him and made Him a man again. In this episode, we speak about a Marathi bestseller that tells Krishna’s story in His own words. We then speak about an originally-in-Greek classic that brought Jesus Christ’s story back to the basics.

This is episode #10 of Bookasur, talking about modern epics that retell older ones, a kid singing our National Anthem for fun, a tenuous connection to a politician, and silver cows.

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Take a horror classic that’s considered foundational, and build a new book on top that’s… a thriller? No one but Ruth Ware could have dared, and gotten away with it. We then move on to a ghost story by someone who’s known for anything but ghosts - Rabindranath Tagore. Or maybe the story’s a metaphor for something else.

This is episode #9 of Bookasur, talking about Domestic Thrillers and Haunted Houses, an author who’s being called a successor to Agatha Christie, and that one Manna Dey song ( I mistakenly call it the Hemant Kumar song in the podcast!!! )

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There are many reasons to read Biographies. Maybe they remind us of our own childhood, or maybe they take us to a creative place only the privileged can reach. Today, we discuss the story of the man who made Alisha Chinai happy in that one iconic video, but who prefers to talk about running today: Milind Soman. Then we delve into the life of one of the most iconic classical musicians ever, Ustad Vilayat Khan, chronicled beautifully by Namita Devidayal.

This is episode #8 of Bookasur, talking about Biographies, growing up in the 90s, doing 20 pushups, and that time Madan Mohan stole a tune from a classical concert.

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How much of the appeal of Horror fiction is in the setting? How much in the world building? Today, we discuss @almakatsu’s book The Deep, where she sets us up for scares on the fatal voyage of the Titanic. And then we talk of @andaleedwajid’s horror novel House of Screams, which takes you to a historic - and storied - area in Bangalore city.

This is episode #7 of Bookasur, talking about horror, setting, scares, and story and somehow working in both Raj Comics and Ramsay Brothers movies.

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Why don’t we read more comics? Especially those that are labours of love, that hold your hand and take you to places you’ve been too intimidated to enter. Amruta Patil (@hathoric) and Devdutt Pattanaik (@devduttmyth) riff off Indian Spiritual texts to create a fresh take. And Apostolos Doxiadis (@apdox) and Christos Papadimitriou give us a layered, unconventional biography of modern mathematics through the eyes of Bertrand Russell.

This is episode #6 of Bookasur, talking about two amazing comics that make you go, “why didn’t I read these before?”

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How best to know a people? Let me count the ways. Madhuri Vijay writes about a Bangalore girl who goes off the beaten paths in Kashmir, looking for a tenuous connection to her past, in her highly acclaimed debut literary novel. Onaiza Drabu retells the stories that the Kashmiri folk tell each other, around the fire, on chilly winter nights. And P. S. Nissim, in reviewing these books, has something to say about how literary fiction contrasts with folk tales.

This is episode #5 of Bookasur, connecting two very different treatments of the beautiful state of Kashmir.

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There are all kinds of travel. There’s discovering a familiar city through new eyes, and there’s going to a place that’s remote in place and time. In this episode, Meera Iyer shows us her city, Bengaluru, as a place full of surprises, heritage, and trivia. Then, Dervla Murphy, tells us of a visit to Gilgit and Baltistan - in the dead of winter - and with her 6-year-old daughter along with her. 

This is episode #4 of Bookasur, connecting two books from very different times and authors, but with similarly appealing spirits of adventure.

Books featured:

Discovering Bengaluru, by Meera Iyer, published by Intach (Do one of their walks if they're in your town!)

Where the Indus is Young, by Dervla Murphy, published by Speaking Tiger in India.

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Saee Koranne-Khandekar (@Saeek) walks us through Maharastrian culture via its food, in her new recipe book. Then, we roll back to a cookbook originally published in 1943, which chronicled the society of the time, even as it told young housewives what to do with the day’s find in the vegetable market. Why would a book review show pick up cookbooks, especially when I can’t really cook anything more than Maggi? Tune in to find out.

This is episode #3 of Bookasur, where the show begins to go off into uncharted territory. Fingers crossed!

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S. B. Divya (@divyastweets) shows us a dozen future interactions between man and machine, in her collection of cool sci-fi short stories. In the meantime, Varun Thomas Mathew takes us to ecological apocalypse and beyond, in his debut novel. Once you get started, you can’t stop reading these bad boys, they’re that absorbing. Tune in to find out more about them.

This is episode #2 of Bookasur, beginning of Jan 2020. I think I’m getting better at it :).

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Aayakudi and Kanthapura are both small villages in South India. But the books set in these places are dramatically different! Tune in to find out more about them.

This was the first episode of Bookasur, recorded late in 2019. It's very much a "pilot" episode, but I think it covers the kind of themes that you'll see in future episodes as well. 

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Before we get properly started, let me tell you what I want to do with this cool new podcast. 

What do we want to cover in the show? 

What new do we bring to the topic? 

And: why listen to me specifically? 

All this stuff, and it's only the trailer :) ! Look out for the first episode on 15th January, 2020. This is your new year resolution to read more, made easy for you.  

Don't forget to subscribe to keep updated!

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