I posted this in the blog section at - http://www.sajha.com/guild/read.cfm?guildid=247 but thought more visibility on Kurakani would not be a bad idea:

- http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=4104835048296643361&hl=en

(I cant post it directly here coz e-mbedding is not allowed on that video and Kurakani does not allow i-frames)

Enjoy!

Splendid! Thanks captain for putting it up!

haven't got a chance to go through "shalimar the clown"... have read rave reviews about the book though. most have claimed that he continued from where he left in "the satanic verses"

Loved his say about muslim culture:
=====================


If you can't re-examine the philosophy out of which your culture grows without drawing the fires of all kinds of people, it stultifies the culture in the end because any living, breathing culture constantly questions itself, constantly re-examines itself, if you can't change it in accordance with time because of the oppression and fear of various kinds, in the end,it cripples yourself !"


And this one about his own growth as a writer over the years:
======================================


"I hope that I am getting clearer. It becomes less interesting to me to play some of the language tricks that I used to play when I was younger. Simplicity is the hardest thing...you don't need to dazzle, you need to find some sort of profoundness. I want to be clear..."



How true!!!

LooTe
PS, you have a nice weekend "da killa" :P

Yeah, that second quote really struck a chord with me too.

Great minds think alike huh, my bud?

:)

And I'm glad he realizes it because a lot of people complain that he has, in the past, done just that.

I had an opportunity to go attend his book reading for Shalimar the Clown almost a year ago. Even got the book and a poster signed by him :-)) And a picture too! I have been a great admirer of Salman Rushdie and have read all of his books. I pride in having the complete Rushdie collection.
Loote, do you think Shalimar picks up where Satanic Verses ends? I didnt think so. I thought about it for a while as both the books are fresh in my mind and I didnt think it was. I did think about the Midnight's Children a lot though. But then Rushdie himself has said that he cannot distance himself from his characters so in many ways, the story and personality of the character is going to sound the same. I happen to think that Rushdie is one of the greatest writer of his generation and his contribution to the literary world will be remembered for long. From what I know, either people love him, or hate him. Some of my friends cant figure out where the story is goiing even after they are half way through the book. And some of us cannot get enough.

Having said that, I still havent watched the video. Thanks Captain for posting the link. Are you an avid Salman Rushdie reader by any chance? Or just like his philosopy?

bostongirl,
when i said that, i meant he picked up from where he left in terms of his class in narrating stories -enthralling and captivating!....unfortunately his other books don't hold the same level of class, vigor and hence perfection that these two books are able to emanate....correct me if i am wrong! trust me, i have not read a lot as most definetly you have!

reviewers almost always tend to have divided opinions about a book, especially when the author chooses sensitive and hot button issues like kashmir or muslim culture, haina?

glad to know that u have his autograph as well. now i am feeling jealous! :P

LooTe

That second comment there was a bit off the cuff and was based mostly on my first attempt to read his work way back when the dinosaurs roamed the earth :)

I am now a big fan of Rushdie's sense of humour as well as his thoughts. I started reading The Satanic Verses soon after the blasphemy controversy first broke out. But I never finished the book because my adolescent mind found the subject matter too abstract and the humour dry and with the short attention span I had back then, I quickly let the book gather dust.

Shalimar the Clown is my second attempt at Rushdie. I am loving it so far. I can relate to a lot of what is in the book - the people, the places, the ideas, the stories, the emotions, the observations. I don't find a lot of time for reading other than when I travel or am on vacation but I am going to make an effort to devote more time to this book. I love his narrative and his astute observation of human behavior - something all good writers posses- but Rushdie, I have found in this book, does so in a style that is pretty captivating. At least so far.

On the flip side, what I am trying to cope with in this book, as I do when I read some of the other great books out there, is the amount of detail. Over the years, my mind has been trained to cut through the chase and sniff out the moolah and there are times when I skip a sentence or two, if not the whole paragraph, because I consider some of the elaborate details not pertinent to my understanding of the story. However, I am trying to change that because I have realized you need to let the author set the context the way he or she wants in order to truly appreciate the story they are telling. I have been able to do it with Naipaul and I think I can with Rushdie too.

But to be honest, a lot of it is just a function of your mood - there are times when you are relaxed and patient and you appreciate depth and other times when you are not and tend to hurry past the details.

I have a handful of books to keep me occupied for the next six months, but I would like to pick up The Satanic Verses again and also read his other books some time next year. For now, my comments about Rushdie are based mostly on my current reading of Shalimar the Clown and on his interviews and other write-ups.

All right, gotta head out in bit. Hope you both have a good weekend.

Long time no 'see' Capt!

Thanks for the clip - enjoyed watching the good old Cantabrigian talk about his gorgeous wife (and the book)! Lucky barsteward! :-)
Please do jot down your thoughts because I would love to hear what you think about the book - and because I have yet to read it... I have squezed in only two books in the last couple of months - how very pathetic! I always wish, we had no career/commitments to worry about. Ke garne!
Oh I remember reading SITARA's briliant review of the book elsewhere last year. (Where are thou SIT?)

Hope all is well with you in Amrikaa, Capt! Blistering barnacle! :-)
Carpe Diem

Some people hate rushdie!

The Blitcon supremacists


Amis, Rushdie and McEwan are using their celebrity status to push a neocon agenda

The second Blitcon conceit is that Islam is the greatest threat to this idea of civilisation. Rushdie's suspicion of and distaste for Islam is obvious in his novels Midnight's Children, Shame and The Satanic Verses. In Shame, Rushdie describes Islam as a mythology that cannot survive close examination, but in The Satanic Verses it becomes an abomination. The novel imagines a rival life of the Prophet Muhammad, complete with historical details and every orientalist stereotype imaginable. As the product of the paranoid delusions of a violent, sexually perverted businessman, The Satanic Verses suggests, Islam runs contrary to every decent value known to man.

- http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/story/0,,1968091,00.html

Commandant

LTNS indeed! Good to hear from you. I can only wonder what you have been upto and hope your time-off from Sajha was a good one :)

Yeah, Sitara hasn't been around this neck of the woods in a while I think. I do hope she drops in some time since she has a lot to contribute.

Keep rocking that side of the pond. And if you ever cross it, don't be a stranger!

:)

captain da killa,

just a question out of blue, and i am not pulling your legs this time hai ?:P...do you have any plans to write a book or two in the future? let me know if you do so, i would love to read your say and philosphy about religion, culture, life, love, women and sex hahahahahahahaha :P

LooTe

Typo:

Please read that as:

let me know if you do so, i would love to read your say and philosphy about religion, culture, love or life in general. :-) :P

LooTe

ha ha ha .... Loote bud! With encouraging friends like you, I might just be tempted to take the plunge ...LOL!

Nah, but seriously, I know you are joking because I'd be a complete disaster if I ventured in that direction. To begin with, I prolly dont have the right skills to even get anywhere near the realm of good writng. And with a tendency to speak my mind and piss-off people left and right, I can't imagine the trouble I might create. They will be burning my books and taking out protest marches or I will be shot dead and fed to the hyenas in the Kalahari! Both are best case scenarios. The worst case is I'd be tried for torture once the publisher, upon reading the manuscript, is not satisfied with tossing it in the rubbish and decides to bring charges against me for inflicting cruel and unusual punishment on him ... LOL

Hope you are doing well.

Hehe...
I recall what Rushdie said in the interview, "most writers do not dare to invite trouble, and hence end up getting themselves invited by the trouble"...

Bud, i am asking this because i saw in you, a sheer passion for books of wide gamut of varieties and their writers and their own stories. if the "trouble" is what discouraging you to break the shackle, i would say "go ahead and embrace it" :-)....just a friendly suggestion, am not joking. to me, you have what it takes to invite the trouble, to say the least! :P

You have a good night!

LooTe

I guess I have to agree with what Loote said here. Your command in your writing style allows us to flow swiftly with your word and I guess this is the biggest factor in making a book successful. Gotta venture out the world, who know what's in store for you.

On the lighter side, let me know if you think of marching towards writing. I need your autograph cos we never know if we get lucky enough to have the pleasure of meeting you after you become a celebrity! ;-)

G'nite people!

Thanks Captain for the links..........

Sandhurst bro....how u doing?? long time no see?? Kina hamilai MAYA marya ni aajkal??

Capt.. blimey!

Thanks for the post. So refreshing to see you firmly at the Sajha helm. I have my own favs when it comes to reading Sajha posts - yours included for the obvious reason. You do certainly form part of the top cohort of those Sajha stalwarts whose writing I have come to admire greatly in the last 13 months that I have been around. And yes, you have in spades loads of the 'writerly' skills that you claim not to possess - no doubt. I can assure you. So I do concur with what both LootK and sweet ol' Flippu have to say about you having a stab at it - why not. India does now have a stream of young budding writers to boast about - why not us eh! We'll need more of Samrats and Manjushrees to be breaking this particular glass ceiling.

I too sometimes think about having a go at it but only after I've retired, though there is work to be done on the 'writerly' skills definitely but one would hope that these do get polished over time. Have loads of travel experiences especially that I can put to words - I am a great fan of travel writing - works by Pico Iyer and Bruce Chatwin in particular. So that's taken care of. All I will need is a cosy villa atop a tree-lined hill overlooking a valley of vineyards and olive groves! :-) And a few bottles of Cianti. And oh, loads of Puccini and Andrea Bocelli to tune in to, and ahem... a dashing Italian Padma Laxmi in tow! How about that?.. ...any one could be a poet or a writer, don't you think! :-)

My time away from Sajha has been all the more fruitful. Thanks for your invite, and likewise. Will make sure I gave you a buzz if I were ever to cross the samundra over on to your side. A cuppa at the STARBUCKS or wherever would be lovely.

Yes, I too hope, SITARA will drop in since I do miss her posts very sorely. STOP PRESS: I did say above, she wrote a review on the Rushdie book. I just realised, hers was on the Naipaul one as opposed to the former! A bad case of mental block there, I am afraid! :-)

Have a great Christmas. (I have already had a few bites at the bichara turkey already - so far attended four dos - the usual show of wining and dining, and this is upsetting my cholesteral level, mind you!)
Take care
**************
Flipu,
How very good to see you! Have a good one at Christmas hai ta.

***********
Amazing,
Where are you these days bhaneko? Still busy canoodling with dashing beauties somewhere in Scandanavia ho? :-) Maya mareko chhaina - It's just that I have been a tad busy with work and life's other priorities. Tetti ho. Hope all is well with you.
Have a good one at Christmas hai.
*********
Carpe diem

""All I will need is a cosy villa atop a tree-lined hill overlooking a valley of vineyards and olive groves! :-) ""

This was my reference to Tuscany and its great country vista.. I have this fixation with Tuscany - don't know why! Too much watching of Bertoulucci (Stealing Beauty)/Felini films may be! :-)

Take care Capt.

LOL Sandhurst L!

I too have wondered what it would be like to write after retirement. A few people I know wanted to do just that but what they told me was writing after retirement can be one of the hardest things coz if you didn't polish your skills through the years, it ain't gonna be easy brushing 'em up when when the nuerons stubbornly refuse to budge. But good luck to you - I am sure you can and will do well if you really put your mind to it. If you need moral support, just holler - I wont be too far off :)

My villa is going to be somewhere on the Amalfi coast - he he he - I am just waiting for the last million to come in before I take the plunge :) That the same million also happens to be my first is besides the point. Perhaps you can come over from your mansion in Tuscany to my humble abode and we can chill out with our companions - young or old - hot or cold - whoever they happen to be at that time :)

I can only imagine what it would be like to get old. A collegue of mine, much senior in age, recently had his mid-life crisis. He divorced his attractive wife of many years - after both of them had extra marital flings - bought a Porsche, and moved in with a women who was much less gifted in physical appearance but with whom he connected emotionally and mentally. I sometimes cant but wonder at stories like that - about all the twists and turns life can take, how people end up doing the things they least expected to, and how we sometimes skip over enjoying the good life in the hope of something better to come that never really does in the end.

Sorry to veer off-topic. Blame it on long ride and rueful music on the local station :) One other comment I had was I am sure people would love to read about your travel adventures - and you seem to have quite a bit to say there - may be a blog now and a book later ...he he ; ) ?

Loote - Shalom! How was the weekend?

Amazing, flip - hope you guys are doing well.

Disco Dancer -

Thanks for that link. It is good to read a different perspective about Rushdie even though one might need some salt and garam masala to take it in with. Perhaps I lack the kind of perspective Ziauddin Sardar brings to the table and therefore dont see it entirely the way he does. I am not terribly familiar with very many of the works of the other writers mentioned in that article, but I wonder by critisizing Rushdie, is Ziauddin giving him more credit than he really deserves?

The ensuing discussion of the article got pretty interesting and bit heated, huh? Much more spicier than Sajha has been of late ...LOL!

Have a good one!