By the way I have my first write of the English novel ready for edit by self. But damn writers block; can’t get myself to do it. Would it help if I read Shobha De’s novel.

While her novels do fit well in the shopping and —-ing genre, I think she’s a fun read now and then. Paperback timepass.

I know that it is often difficult for newspapers in India to pay big bucks for columnists, but still. The Hindu has done a much, much better job with the middle pages than the Times of India given the same sort of constraints. Even if I disagree with the columnists in the Hindu, I respect their opinions. Why have a socialite taking up space when that space could instead be used nurturing talent?

I would agree with the Jackie Collins analogy. She has opened up Indian society with all that soft pr0n, fo’ sho.

That would be Nari Hira. De was his protege who also worked at Nari Hira’s ad agency.

in addition to her having propositioned several people i know in exchange for an interview while she was a journalist (and when i say journalist, i use the term loosely), there’s a ton of other gossip out there. just ask any bombayite.

still, she has us all talking about her. and she was one of the few indian “authors” (again: use term loosely) who got written up about in time magazine pretty early on, in the late 80s, before indian fiction became trendy. i mean post-rushdie, of course. i think they called her the jackie collins of india or something to that effect. well, i call her that anyway. a reasonable analogy, i think.

Sin, I wouldn’t mind getting you a few. I could even lob them across the border from Delhi.