---------------------------------------------------------- Archives: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/goa-net/ http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Goanet2003/ ----------------------------------------------------------
Crisply baked stories from a fractured land, India By Smita Mitra, Indo-Asian News Service New Delhi, Dec 24 (IANS) They toppled out of god's oven one by one, each a shade lighter, each more superior -- and that is how they have lived ever since in their fractured land, India. Or so goes the grandmother's tale that Saryu Srivatsa narrates in the book "Out of God's Oven: Travels in a Fractured Land" that she has co-authored with veteran writer Dom Moraes. The work of non-fiction, which had a seven-year gestation period, was launched at the Taj Mahal hotel late Monday. It explores the concept of India through the eyes of Indians. The authors interviewed nearly 400 people, famous and anonymous, on their notion of India. What emerged was the story of a fractured land strung together by the experiences of the authors themselves. Moraes said the book lays bare the hollow credentials of many deeply held notions of caste and class in India. About the title of the book, Srivatsa had a little story to tell. "(Hindu god) Vishnu decided to make the perfect human being out of clay. But the first one came out all black and burnt from the oven. He flung it down on earth saying, 'This will be the shudra.' "The second model also roasted a bit too long, came out brown. Vishnu, annoyed, said it would represent the non-Brahmins on earth. But the third doll came out perfect. Pleased, Vishnu said it would represent the Brahmins." This story was told to Srivatsa by her grandmother. But then, the author told IANS, "I always asked her why I was so black despite being a Brahmin!" While the concept of the book itself is unique, it is the two distinct voices in the book that make it an interesting read. Said Srivatsa, a winner of the Outlook-Picador prize for Best Creative Non-Fiction Short Story: "We were working on a film script. But we discovered then that we had radically different viewpoints on what India stood for." While Srivatsa had a rosy, patriotic picture of an undivided country, "gleaned from schoolbooks," Moraes had the view of a splintered India, based on first-hand experience. "She, brought up in an orthodox Tamil Brahmin family, was an insider in India. I have always felt slightly exiled, wherever I have lived," said Moraes. Collecting material for the book took four years. By 1999, the manuscript was too voluminous to be published. The next three years saw Moraes and Srivatsa struggling to give the book a structure and format. It was finally David Davidar of Penguin India who got the ball rolling. A professional edit later, the book was a readable 400 pages. A special chapter on Gujarat written by Moraes perhaps makes the book especially relevant to contemporary India. It also documents landmark movements like the Maoist extremism in Bengal, terrorism in Punjab and caste wars in Bihar. As Shekhar Gupta, The Indian Express editor who released the book, put it, "Out of God's Oven..." could be called the first book "written about India by Indians". --Indo-Asian News Service WANT TO check out which mailing lists you could subscribe to? Send a blank email message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] ======================================================================== Ongoing: Exhibition of paintings, Art Chamber, Calangute www.goa-art.com Dec 23-Jan 7: Dayanita Singh's photo exhibition, Art House Tel 2276123 Jan 18-19: International kite carnival at Morgim beach, Pernem ========================================================================
