What is Suprose?

Welcome to Suprose.

Why Su-prose? "Su" in Sanskrit is a prefix for "good". This is a place where we will discuss and analyze prose (with a South Asian Connection) - that which is good, awesome, excellent, and maybe rant about prose that could be better.

Whether you love prose, are a prose expert, or want to learn more about prose, or to put it simply want to have anything to do with prose, this blog is for you.

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Tuesday, October 10, 2006

A Conversation With Chitra Divakaruni

When Chitra Divakaruni’s first book of short stories “Arranged Marriage” was published in 1995, it created a media frenzy. It was awarded the PEN Oakland Josephine Miles Prize for Fiction, the Bay Area Book Reviewer Award for Fiction, and an American Book Award from the Before Columbus Foundation. A highly successful book, this was the beginning of many more successful novels and collection of short stories by Chitra Divakaruni.
Divakaruni was born in India and lived there until 1976, until she was nineteen, at which point she left Calcutta and came to the United States. She continued her education in the field of English by receiving a Master's degree from Wright State University in Dayton, Ohio, and a Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley.
Her work is widely known, as she has been published in over 50 magazines, including the Atlantic Monthly and The New Yorker, and her writing has been included in over 30 anthologies including Best American Short Stories and The Pushcart Prize Anthology. Her works have been translated into 11 languages, including Dutch, Hebrew and Japanese.
Her biography on the Emory University website states that much of Divakaruni's work is partially autobiographical. Not only are most of her stories set in the Bay Area of California, but she also deals with the immigrant experience, which is an important theme in today's world, where the immigrant's voice is rarely heard. She writes to unite people, and she does this by destroying myths and stereotypes. As she breaks down these barriers, she dissolves boundaries between people of different backgrounds, communities, ages, and even different worlds.
Divakaruni's writing often centers on the lives of immigrant women. "Women in particular respond to my work because I'm writing about them, women in love, in difficulties, women in relationships. I want people to relate to my characters, to feel their joy and pain, because it will be harder to be prejudiced when they meet them in real life," says Divakaruni. Her interest in women began after she left India, at which point she came to reevaluate the treatment of women there. At Berkeley, she volunteered at a women's center and became interested in helping battered women. She then started Maitri with a group of friends, which eventually led her to write Arranged Marriage, a work that includes stories about the abuse and courage of immigrant women.
Her first novel Mistress of Spices was published in 1997 and was recently made into a motion picture. “I wrote in a spirit of play, collapsing the divisions between the realistic world of twentieth century America and the timeless one of myth and magic in my attempt to create a modern fable," says Divakaruni about her first novel.
Her second collection of short stories, The Unknown Errors of our lives was published in 2001. One of the stories from this collection “Mrs. Dutta Writes A Letter," was selected for Best American Short Stories, 1999. In this touching story a widow living in her son's California home discovers that her old world ways are an embarrassment to her daughter-in-law.
Chitra's last novel, Queen of Dreams, was released in September 2004. The novel follows Rahki, an artist and divorced mother living in Berkeley, California. When her mother, an interpreter of dreams, passes away, Rahki must confront a forgotten past and an increasingly complex life in post 9-11 America.
An acclaimed poet as well, Divakaruni has versatile writing talents and has also published three young adult novels - Neelas Song, The Conch Bearer, and The Mirror of Fire and Dreaming, of which she says her two sons were the best critics. Her poems have won a Pushcart Prize, an Allen Ginsberg Prize and a Gerbode Foundation award. Her latest novel is “Palace Of Illusions.”
For twenty years Divakaruni lived in the California Bay Area and taught at Foothill College. In 1997 she moved to Texas with her husband and two boys, where Divakaruni currently teaches in the nationally ranked Creative Writing program area at the Univ. of Houston. She divides her time between Houston and Northern California. She serves on the board of Maitri in the Bay and on the Advisory Board of Asians against Domestic Abuse in Houston. Divakaruni spoke to Visi Tilak of the Indian American about her love for books and reading. Here is an excerpt from her interview:
What are your criteria for selecting books to read?
-- I like meaningful books. I rarely read only for entertainment. I feel I should learn something from the book about human nature and our world

What is your favorite genre for reading?
-- Fiction and spiritual books.
What kind of fiction do you like and why?
I like all kinds of serious literary fiction. I also enjoy quality children's fiction since I write that also.
Why and what do you like about literary fiction?
Literary fiction creates a honest picture of the world as the author sees it. It is concerned not only with subject matter but with creating a fine piece of art. That is why it lasts and can be read again and again because of its many layers. It ultimately promotes life-enhancing values, even when it brings them out through tragedy.
Which is your all time favorite work of fiction?
This changes all the time. I have many favorites. One favorite is War and Peace by Tolstoy. It is very relevant to today's world. A book I like very much by a writer of Indian origin is Amitav Ghosh's, Glass Palace about the Indian immigrants in Burma. I learned so much about history and humanity and his style is wonderful.
What are some contemporary works of fiction that you have read recently? What did you like about them?
I have read and enjoyed Zadie Smith’s, White Teeth. I love her exuberant language & sense of humor as well as the way in which she deals with serious issues related to diverse cultures living together. Her characters come to life.
I also read and enjoyed Louise Erdrich's novel, the Painted Drum. It is very poetic & evocative language, and a real sense of the vanishing/threatened Native American culture. Her characters are very moving. You begin to care for them.
What do you like about
spiritual books?
I appreciate how they deal with eternal truths. They give me much to contemplate about the nature of existence and they help me put the problems in my life in perspective. I attend Chinmaya Mission's spiritual study classes and have been fortunate to study several of the Upanishads with Swami Chinmayananda's commentaries and the Gita with both his commentary and Swami Ramsukhdas's commentary. It is important to have a good commentary when dealing with the ancient texts as they are often cryptic.
Which is your favorite non-fiction book?
The Bhagavat Gita. It always helps me with whatever situation I am encountering in my life.
What about contemporary non-fiction?
I have not read much non-fiction recently, being busy with my own writing, but I read and enjoyed Maximum City by Suketu Mehta. I really appreciated his easy to read style with powerful descriptions, from bar-dancers to housewives to movie moguls to gangsters, also I enjoyed learning many things I did not know of life in Mumbai. He did some very detailed journalistic research for the book.
Also, I enjoyed the Power of Now, which is a very clear, clean simple book by Eckhart Tolle about living in the present moment, being aware of one's mental workings, a technique which has the power to transform one's life. It is also a wonderful spiritual book with very practical suggestions.
What are your "go to books" that motivate you when you run into a
writers block? How do they motivate you?
I read other South Asian writers -- Bharati Mukherjee, Amitav Ghosh, Rohinton Mistry, Jhumpa Lahiri, Anita Desai, Arundhati Roy, Samrat Upadhyay--they are often writing of similar issues and that inspires me. Tagore and Sharat Chandra and Mahasweta Devi are always inspiring because of their deep understanding of human nature & their concern with society.
Name some other genres you may read once in a while... What do you
like about them?
I read fantasy & science fiction. When well written, they are very imaginative & often deal with the issues of our times through the vehicle of the future/other world. Some of my favorites are Lord of the Rings and Fahrenheit 451.
What genres would you completely avoid reading? Why?

I don't like reading violent books about serial killers, murderers etc. I don't think it is very healthy for the mind. It is distressing that so many of such books with random violence, perversion, torture etc. are so popular nowadays because one comes away from it de-sensitized to such things and one's ultimate values might be affected.
There are so many movies that are based upon books. Name one
that you think was made well and complemented the book. Please explain
why this was your favorite.
-- I love Satyajit Ray's Charulata, based on Tagore's novel Nasta Neer. The actors brought the story alive and made it very poignant.
When is a book is made into a movie, should readers watch the movie
after reading the book? Why?
-- It helps to read the book first. It allows you to create your own images in your head.
Many readers like to listen to music while they read. Do you?
No. When I read I like to focus on that. When I listen to music I like to focus on that.
Your thoughts on the movie version of Mistress of Spices? Have you seen it? Did you like
it? Did the movie adhere to the book plot?
Yes, I saw it at the premier in Toronto, at the international film fest where it got a standing ovation. I enjoyed it. I thought the photography, music, sets and much of the acting was very good. The beginning was very striking. It did change many things from the plot (for example, in the book Tilo the main character is an old woman) and leave out some sub-stories, but I guess that has to happen in movies. Overall I think Paul Berges did a good job with this first movie.
Your new novel “Palace Of Illusions” is a departure from your usual style. Where did your inspiration and the idea for this novel come from?
I have been fascinated by the story of Panchaali from my childhood. How unusual her situation is, as a wife of five husbands. How courageous she is under the most difficult circumstances. And yet--she is very human and makes many mistakes, gets angry and the wrong times, is revengeful and capricious. I wanted to write a novel where she is the central character and the narrator of her life's events and what they mean to her.
This, unlike your other novels is very historical and research intensive. How did you go about it?
I read/studied several different versions of the Mahabharat, in English and Bengali as well. I read a number of scholarly books on the epic, and then I read some of the novels based on it.
How much of this novel is fiction?
Most of the major events and characters are from the epic itself. I have filled in the sections not mentioned in the epic through my imagination--the private moments of Panchaali's life, her thoughts, etc. In several places I have taken something briefly mentioned in the Mahabharat and elaborated on it (for example, the incident in the swayamvar where Panchaali rejects Karna as her suitor).
Panchaali is a very strong and admirable character, and her power and strength come to life in this novel. What about her do you admire most?
I most admire her ability to know her own shortcomings as well as her courage in trying to change them.
Are you working on your next manuscript yet? What is it going to be?
It will be a children's magical adventure titled Shadowland. It is the final book of the Conch Bearer trilogy.
Your hopes for new and upcoming writers?

This is a good time to write, lots of publishers are open to Indian writing right now. I hope people will branch out and write about many new things.
What are some books you would recommend to aspiring writers? Why?
There is a very nice book on writing called bird by bird by Anne Lamott. It helped me a great deal when I started to write.

Interviewed by Visi Tilak

Saturday, June 24, 2006

Book Review of The Last Song of Dusk by Siddharth Dhanvant Shangvi


Certainly Not His Last Song…
Book: The Last Song of Dusk
Author: Siddharth Dhanvant Shangvi
Publisher: Random House
Pages: 336 pages
From the land of the Kama Sutra comes the story of a young woman, her life, her triumphs, her losses, her sorrows and her joys. The Last Song of Dusk brings together tantalizing and mellifluous language and a touching and heartrending story of love and life. A plot that is simple yet intense traces the story of a young woman, the protagonist, after she leaves her hometown of Udaipur to marry Vardhaman, a wealthy young doctor in Mumbai.
A debut novel by Sidharth Shangvi, Last Song of Dusk takes it readers through a melodious journey filled with a mix of emotions, bliss, love, lust, sadness, and revolves around three main characters, all of whom have tremendous depth and detail.
Anuradha, the protagonist and her husband Vardhaman are the lead players in this tale. With a transitioning Bombay, influenced by the British Raj, in the backdrop, they meet and marry and procreate. In the midst of all this is Divibai, the hateful mother in law who is the anti-thesis of all things good, and her pet parrot that strangely says everything that Divibai thinks.
In spite of Divibai, life is beautiful for Anuradha and Vardhaman. Mohan is their little son, who has brought even more beauty and joy into their lives. Alas this is not for very long. Calamity befalls Mohan, who passes away. Shangvi portrays this demise in a very dramatic and heartbreaking manner.
Circumstances force Anuradha to go to her parents home to recoup. Here the third character in the novel joins the story. The untamed and wild Nandini Hariharan whose world is full of optimism, ambition, and drive, nothing can stop her. She becomes a surrogate daughter to Anuradha who takes Nandini back to Bombay.
What happens after Anuradha and Nandini return to Bombay, forms the crux of the novel. … The back story of a homosexual Englishman and Indian who refuses to come out of the closet is thrown in gracefully, and brings verve to the main plot.
Shangvi’s characters are well drawn up and profound. The melodious and delightful lady Anuradha, the calm and sophisticated sahib Vardhaman and the wild and reckless Nandini, each are well thought out and completely contrasting characters who in unison make beautiful music. The rest of the characters in the novel are beautifully laid out as well.
A very unusual setting, Shangvi brings to life the Bombay of yesteryears, the salon lifestyle and the memsahibs. For a change, no mention of the slums of Bombay or the poverty that it soaks in. The lifestyles of the eccentric, rich and popular are brought out charmingly in this narrative.
A strong element of fantasy is magnificently interwoven into a poignant love story – Dariya Mahal, the house with passion, a woman’s lure for leopards, a girl who walks on water, supernatural music that triggers happenings and many other intonations that are surprisingly apposite to the situation.
This book will be republished in June 2006 in the US after, being on the bestseller list in other parts of the world. Shanghvi, who was 26 years old when his bestselling debut novel “Last Song of Dusk” was honored with U.K’s,  Betty Trask award and Italy’s Premio Grinzane Cavour.
Do we have another Hari Kunzru in the making? Labeled by the media as the next Arundhati Roy, or Salman Rushdie version 7.0, Shangvi lives in Bombay and Northern California.
Shangvi using his poetic, elegiac, rythmic and harmonious use of language and a strong and eventful plot seduces his readers with The Last Song of Dusk. Shangvi entertains, thrills, distresses, surprises and provokes his readers with wit, charm and incredulity. This certainly is not Shangvi’s last song, looks like the concert is just beginning.
Anuradha’s throat felt like a live coal. She looked up and tears raced down her cheeks. Where are the small mercies? Right then, through the tearful prisms of her gaze, she saw a most spectacular sight. There, in the distance, in a raggedy blue gown, hair cut short as a tramp’s, arms bamboolike, feet making long strides, was an adolescent girl walking over Lake Pichola. And what do you know! She was as lovely as the moonlight stuck in puddles. No, Anuradha argued with herself, this cannot be. I’ve been asked to believe much in the last few months. But a girl walking on water? No! I won’t buy that. To confirm her doubt, she ran breathlessly down to the pergola, where she motioned to the girl. The ruffian looked up as slowly as she could: her hair was wild but secre in it’s wildness, and her stride was strikingly feline.
“Were you really walking on water?” Anuradha asked her when she was in earshot.
“Walking on water?” the girl said, entirely unflustered. “That’s nothing! You should see how I do it on land.”

Certainly Not His Last Song…

From the land of the Kama Sutra comes the story of a young woman, her life, her triumphs, her losses, her sorrows and her joys. The Last Song of Dusk brings together tantalizing and mellifluous language and a touching and heartrending story of love and life. A plot that is simple yet intense traces the story of a young woman, the protagonist, after she leaves her hometown of Udaipur to marry Vardhaman, a wealthy young doctor in Mumbai.
A debut novel by Sidharth Shangvi, Last Song of Dusk takes it readers through a melodious journey filled with a mix of emotions, bliss, love, lust, sadness, and revolves around three main characters, all of whom have tremendous depth and detail.
Anuradha, the protagonist and her husband Vardhaman are the lead players in this tale. With a transitioning Bombay, influenced by the British Raj, in the backdrop, they meet and marry and procreate. In the midst of all this is Divibai, the hateful mother in law who is the anti-thesis of all things good, and her pet parrot that strangely says everything that Divibai thinks.
In spite of Divibai, life is beautiful for Anuradha and Vardhaman. Mohan is their little son, who has brought even more beauty and joy into their lives. Alas this is not for very long. Calamity befalls Mohan, who passes away. Shangvi portrays this demise in a very dramatic and heartbreaking manner.
Circumstances force Anuradha to go to her parents home to recoup. Here the third character in the novel joins the story. The untamed and wild Nandini Hariharan whose world is full of optimism, ambition, and drive, nothing can stop her. She becomes a surrogate daughter to Anuradha who takes Nandini back to Bombay.
What happens after Anuradha and Nandini return to Bombay, forms the crux of the novel. … The back story of a homosexual Englishman and Indian who refuses to come out of the closet is thrown in gracefully, and brings verve to the main plot.
Shangvi’s characters are well drawn up and profound. The melodious and delightful lady Anuradha, the calm and sophisticated sahib Vardhaman and the wild and reckless Nandini, each are well thought out and completely contrasting characters who in unison make beautiful music. The rest of the characters in the novel are beautifully laid out as well.
A very unusual setting, Shangvi brings to life the Bombay of yesteryears, the salon lifestyle and the memsahibs. For a change, no mention of the slums of Bombay or the poverty that it soaks in. The lifestyles of the eccentric, rich and popular are brought out charmingly in this narrative.
A strong element of fantasy is magnificently interwoven into a poignant love story – Dariya Mahal, the house with passion, a woman’s lure for leopards, a girl who walks on water, supernatural music that triggers happenings and many other intonations that are surprisingly apposite to the situation.
This book will be republished in June 2006 in the US after, being on the bestseller list in other parts of the world. Shanghvi, who was 26 years old when his bestselling debut novel “Last Song of Dusk” was honored with U.K’s, Betty Trask award and Italy’s Premio Grinzane Cavour.
Do we have another Hari Kunzru in the making? Labeled by the media as the next Arundhati Roy, or Salman Rushdie version 7.0, Shangvi lives in Bombay and Northern California.
Shangvi using his poetic, elegiac, rythmic and harmonious use of language and a strong and eventful plot seduces his readers with The Last Song of Dusk. Shangvi entertains, thrills, distresses, surprises and provokes his readers with wit, charm and incredulity. This certainly is not Shangvi’s last song, looks like the concert is just beginning.
Anuradha’s throat felt like a live coal. She looked up and tears raced down her cheeks. Where are the small mercies? Right then, through the tearful prisms of her gaze, she saw a most spectacular sight. There, in the distance, in a raggedy blue gown, hair cut short as a tramp’s, arms bamboolike, feet making long strides, was an adolescent girl walking over Lake Pichola. And what do you know! She was as lovely as the moonlight stuck in puddles. No, Anuradha argued with herself, this cannot be. I’ve been asked to believe much in the last few months. But a girl walking on water? No! I won’t buy that. To confirm her doubt, she ran breathlessly down to the pergola, where she motioned to the girl. The ruffian looked up as slowly as she could: her hair was wild but secre in it’s wildness, and her stride was strikingly feline.
“Were you really walking on water?” Anuradha asked her when she was in earshot.
“Walking on water?” the girl said, entirely unflustered. “That’s nothing! You should see how I do it on land.”


Book: The Last Song of Dusk
Author: Siddharth Dhanvant Shangvi
Publisher: Random House
Pages: 336 pages

Thursday, June 15, 2006

Kaavya Viswanathan -- Why did it happen and How is she going to cope with it?

This is not just the story of a shattered American dream… This is a young and ambitious 19 year old that we are talking about. The summer holidays are here. School and university students get their three-month break to recover from 10 months of lessons and homework. This is their time to rejuvenate, energize and ready themselves before another school year begins. It’s the same for Kaavya Vishwanathan, who is a mere 19 years old, but is dealing with a misfortune that even adults find hard to stomach.
Internet blogs like Gawker and Puritan City reek with tittle-tattle and chitchat about how Viswanathan was found smoking at a nightclub in Cambridge, “I saw her at a cinco de mayo party at 44 jfk on friday night. My friend was a little drunk and was shouting about Salman Rushdie. She did not look pleased. Another friend later found her in a more secluded room smoking and told her that “smoking kills.”
A lame satire article in Forbes magazine by Karl Shmavonian titled Kaavya Viswanathan’s Secret Stash, talks about an enraged former roommate who handed over a hidden stash of unfinished manuscripts to literary scholars. The article scrutinizes and dissects some of the manuscripts and says that, “Historians were also tantalized by notes indicating that she was sketching a virtual history, entitled Peace and War: How Napoleon Got Crowned, Got Eager and Got a Country, in which the emperor was victorious in his desire to conquer Russia.” According to the satire, Viswanathan’s roommate is working on a memoir!
The world can be a cruel place especially for those that are trying to nurse themselves back to normalcy.
While everyone is talking about how she failed, and how she may never write again. No one seems to be thinking about how one so young is coping with this calamity between school and exams. Yes, this is the story of the 19 year old that shot up to fame and came crashing down even before she reached the top. The story that has been in every media one can think of. Her downfall was an even bigger story than the $500,000 contract itself.
After my interview with her I came away believing, then and now, that this was just another likeable teenager with quirks of her own. She was charming and beautiful, young and bubbly, audacious and opinionated. She was rushing from one interview to another, while managing classes and her many extra curricular activities. She is a foodie, who loves to cook, shop and travel. She loves the theater and the arts and hopes to become an investment banker. She loves her parents but scrunches her nose at their choice of music and clothes. She is just another teenager.
What forced Kaavya to take on so much, at so young a life? Who was pressurizing her to maybe perform more than she could give? Or was this just a teenager on hyper drive who wanted it all? Is this going to change her personality from the bubbly person she was to a more withdrawn and quiet person? When will her life return to normalcy? So many unanswered questions.
Bottom line, she was and is just a teenager who has her whole life ahead of her. She needs to be left alone so that she can cope with her emotions. One misstep cannot and will not mean the end of one so young and vulnerable.
Harvard students, that know her, say that Viswanathan is coping rather well and working hard at getting her normal routine back on track. She is back to attending her usual parties and events and goes to her regular hangouts. She is believed to have said that “this is just a temporary media frenzy which will eventually die down”.
This I believe… Viswanathan is an extremely resilient teenager with a drive and ambition that will see her through. . She will return after a summer of recovering and recouping and continue to work through school as successfully as she did before. In time, she would have learned from her mistakes, achieved her goals, and become a successful person. Time is healer time will mend… Give her a few years to recoup, heal, and she will be back, with a vengeance…

by Visi Tilak

Kavita Dasiya on Kaavya Vishwanathan

Kavita Daiya is currently Assistant Professor of Postcolonial Theory in the Department of English, and affiliated faculty in the Women’s Studies Program at George Washington University. Her research and teaching interests include Postcolonial Literature and Cinema, Colonial History, Transnational Feminisms, South Asian American Literature, Race and Ethnicity, and Visual Culture. Dr. Daiya holds a PhD from the English department at the University of Chicago, and is currently working on her book Violent Belongings: Gender and Nation in the Postcolonial Public Sphere.
On What Happened…
I’ve seen the passages in Viswanathan’s novel that are similar to those in Megan McCafferty’s works, and I would ascribe those similarities to both carelessness and to genre. While I think Viswanathan was careless in not being attentive to the question of plagiarism and originality before releasing the text to Alloy, it seems far fetched to argue that Viswanathan deliberately, maliciously and intentionally plagiarized phrases (like “sweet and woodsy”) from these specific works!
On Plagiarism In The Chick-Lit Genre…
I am inclined to agree with those who have also pointed out that many of these similarities emerge from the generic conventions within which both writers work: there are certain tropes, archetypal plots, linguistic features, stock characters, etc. that most if not all of the novels in the young adult genre share. In a way, that is the difference between a literary novel written by a Kazuo Ishiguro, Arundhati Roy or Toni Morrison, and the works written for and as a part of a particular genre by McCafferty and Viswanathan.
On Other Upcoming Young Adult Writers Being Affected…
I think young adult writers in the future might be more careful, might think a little more self-consciously about this potential charge of plagiarism when they write. But I do think the fact of the genre and its conventions do constitute a limit and frame for the creative possibilities: and add to that the reality of a certain type of novel becoming commercially successful like Sophie Kinsella’s novels, and publishers therefore following suit trying to find the next Kinsella.
On Packaging…
It is unfortunate that a “packaging” company like Alloy has now emerged to mediate between a writer and a publisher, and to essentially transform an author’s creative output into a “product” that will produce sales for a publisher. Because this has now started involving not only producing the cover design but also altering the text, the story and its language to fit a particular saleable dominant, personally I find this very troubling. It takes the commercialization of literature to a new level. Because this kind of novel is not only about creative literary production, but more about producing a popular product for consumption. So all this raises important questions about how we think of originality, newness and authorship in the modern world…in a way, it deconstructs our myths about the lonely struggling writer working away at his craft in the garret to produce a unique and original work: showing that often it is just that, a myth, an idealization. Originality and authenticity are, after all, constructs and artifacts of modernity.
On The Media Overexposing The Case…
I think the media has definitely overexposed the case, giving it more salience than necessary, in part probably because of the high financial stakes for Viswanathan, and the Harvard connection: the prestige and status of Harvard as the leading educational institution not only in the US but also globally, has unfortunately given a greater visibility than warranted to this book and its young author studying at Harvard.
On Viswanathan Writing And Being Published Again…
Yes of course she should write again, and if she writes well, should be published again. Let me clarify that academic honesty is a very serious issue that I take up regularly in my classes: one has to both educate students on what constitutes plagiarism and its seriousness, and to critique the instances of plagiarism that one encounters in higher education. But I believe that with respect to the Viswanathan controversy, it is less interesting to ask ‘Did she plagiarize or not?’ or ‘Did she intend to copy McCafferty?’ Instead, I think it is more important to look at the discourse generated around her and ask: Viswanathan seems to have become an icon in the public sphere upon whom a cultural crisis about authorship and authenticity have coalesced, given the increasing corporatization in the US of ‘literature.’

Meera Nair on Kaavya Vishwanathan

Meera Nair's debut collection, Video, received the Asian-American Literary Award for Fiction in 2003 and was named one of the Best Books of the Year by The Washington Post. She is a recipient of fellowships from the New York Foundation for the Arts and The New York Times. Her work has appeared on NPR's Selected Shorts, as well as in The Threepenny Review, Calyx, The New York Times, The National Post, India Abroad and an anthology of Asian-American writing, Charlie Chan is Dead 2. She is at work on her first novel, to be published by Pantheon.
On What Happened…
Given the news stories that are now coming out that she was packaged and marketed for the right demographic like any other product by a team of savvy publishers, I am beginning to feel sorry for her. Perhaps she had the makings of a really good writer--at least Amitav Ghosh thought so---before these people got to her. I think she was under a lot of pressure to produce that book. By all accounts, it sounds interesting enough, it's sounds smart and engaging---and it would have probably been a better book if they had let her write it without all the pushing and polishing involved.
On Other Upcoming Young Adult Writers Being Affected…
Maybe now publishers will fact check obsessively, editors will actually do their job, and care about literary merit than smart marketing. Or maybe this will be a big deal until the next good-looking, young teen author comes along!
On The Media Overexposing The Case…
I think there was a case of immigrant envy going on! What's with these Indian-American writer's anyway----here's yet another Indian-American author making good, getting the fat advance and the world-class movie deal—good god, don't they every stop--that kind of thing. So when she ended up with rather large quantities of egg on her face, the howling for her head was that much louder. At last, here's a successful Indian-American writer who tripped up! I think it ties in with the whole immigrant debate ---the good immigrant versus the not-so-good immigrant and all that. What's more, she's a fox and the media loves to flash those photos around.
On Viswanathan Writing And Being Published Again…
Listen, she's 19 years old! If she can really write, nothing's going to keep her down. Nothing should. If she can't write--well then, that's the end of the story. Anyway, she has managed to stack up more material to mine for stories than most 18 year olds, in a pretty short time.

Kavita Daswani on Kaavya Vishwanathan

Kavita Daswani is the author of several works in the chick-lit genre including “For Matrimonial Purposes” and “The Village Bride of Beverly Hills.” She has been a fashion correspondent for CNN, CNBC Asia, and Womens Wear Daily. A native of Mumbai, she currently lives in Los Angeles.
On Viswanathan’s Book…
I read her work. I even endorsed it on the cover. I liked it - thought it was funny and well-written. I thought she had a lot of talent.
On Plagiarism In The Chick-Lit Genre…
I think that plagiarism itself is an anomaly. But it does call attention to the entire genre, and that could be a good thing. Not every female Indian writer is 19 years old and prone to things like this. With regards to plagiarism in the chick-lit genre, not more so than other genres - although I can see how dealing in certain story lines and characters can be limiting.
On Packaging…
I can see how it could work, definitely. If there's raw talent there, but a writer needs help getting his or her ideas out there, there's no reason why he or she can't bring in a packaging company to help them put something together.
On The Media Overexposing The Case…
The main reason it was overexposed was because of Kaavya's youth, and the amount of money she was paid for her work. If it were a 40-year old writer who was given an unspectacular advance, probably very little attention would have been drawn to it.
On Viswanathan Writing And Being Published Again…
Give it a few years. and some experience and insight on her part. Maybe, eventually, it will be forgotten and she can have another go. People can be forgiving. But the most important thing is that she should have something to offer, and an authentic voice that people will want to hear.

Mitali Perkins on Kaavya Vishwanathan

Mitali Bose Perkins was born in Kolkata, India, and lived in several countries (England, Ghana, Cameroon, and Mexico) before settling as a seventh-grader with her parents and two sisters in California. Ms. Perkins is the author of several novels for young readers, including Monsoon Summer, The Not-So-Star-Spangled Life of Sunita Sen, Rickshaw Girl, and a forthcoming two-book series about a President’s daughter.
On What Happened…
I have no idea what happened, but I believe her when she says that the plagiarism wasn’t volitional. It’s impossible to prove, I know, and the evidence against her has been clearly articulated by many people, but I’m going to stay in her corner. Besides, “innocent until proven guilty” is one of the strongest cornerstones in civil societies. One of my goals is to champion teens caught between cultures, and Kaavya is definitely one of those. I admire the way Megan McCafferty has responded without condemnation towards a younger writer.
On Other Upcoming Young Adult Writers Being Affected…
Publishers will be reluctant to launch a young writer into the adult book world with as spectacular of a splash, but that’s probably good. A headline-generating teen debut is not the best way to begin your career when you’re thinking about sustaining it over the long haul. Christopher Paolini (Eragon, The Inheritance) seems to be sailing through success without much ado, but that’s probably because he published for children and teens, not for adults. The children’s book world is a safer, smaller circle to join when you’re a teen writer — and not necessarily less lucrative these days.
On Packaging A Writers Work By A Company…
I’m not a story snob. Packagers help create a series of entertaining reads for people who want fixes featuring their favorite characters, like Nancy Drew, etc. The lasting impact and depth of fiction, however, has to be affected when generated quickly in committee instead of slaved over by one person. (As I am slaving over a book right now, I certainly hope I’m right.)
On The Media Overexposing The Case…
For writers, editors, and publishers, this case has been a wakeup call and a chance to reflect on copyright and the creative process. Teens have reflected on the dangers and ethics of plagiarism. Within the South Asian community, it’s been healthy to scrutinize the pressure on young people to succeed. For Kaavya, though, I’m sure the international criticism has been devastating. While good may yet come to her out of this mess, I’m sure she wouldn’t have applied to be a catalyst of change.
On Viswanathan Writing And Being Published Again….
If we’re prevented from writing because of mistakes we’ve made that have inflicted pain on ourselves and others, which one of us would be “allowed to write?” Once Kaavya has had a chance to heal and reflect, I would wholeheartedly encourage her to write again. The suffering endured and the lessons learned can refine her writing and inspire her to create powerful stories.
Of course she can be published again. Other writers have worn a scarlet “P” and survived to tell another tale. When you’re nineteen years old, the future is full of second chances and fresh starts.

Reactions To the Kaavya VIshwanathan Story

A young teenager with a gift for the written word messed up. So how has the world reacted to it? Quite dramatically! There’s many who continue to condemn her and scratch the bottom of the pot to find more faults, there are those who believe that Viswanathan was taken for a ride and her agent and packaging company were equally responsible for the mistakes, and then there are those who believe that what’s happened has happened, let’s move on.
Many students at Universities worldwide are also reacting similarly, with reactions ranging from feeling sorry, getting angry and taking malicious satisfaction in another person's troubles. “As for my students, they were rather gleeful. They'd talked about her success jealously before--so the schadenfruede was palpable!” says Meera Nair, writer and teacher of creative writing.
From this incident arises the larger issue of young adults' comprehension of plagiarism. Teaching young high school and college students how to quote other writers and making them understand what plagiarism is has always been a challenge for teachers of English. College English composition classes are a pre-requisite and try to emphasize upon how not to plagiarize and how to accurately quote from other works. “Academic honesty is a very serious issue that I take up regularly in my classes: one has to both educate students on what amounts to plagiarism and its seriousness, and to critique the instances of plagiarism that one encounters in the academy and in higher education,” says Kavita Daiya, Assistant Professor of English at George Washington University.
The question of “responsibility” is also another huge issue arising from this controversy. Many are wondering where Kaavya Viswanathan’s agent, her editor at Little Brown and more importantly the packaging company Alloy Entertainment, figure in this equation. Many question why Alloy Entertainment is listed before Kaavya Viswanathan’s name in the novel. Did they indeed get 50% of the advance and royalties from the sale of the book. Is this scandal completely Viswanathan’s responsibility or is she a scapegoat? While so many come forward to take credit when the going is good, should there not be others coming forward to share responsibility during this misfortune?
Daiya says, “For me, this incident also raises very important and urgent questions about responsibility on the part of Alloy, the packaging firm, as well: To what extent has the original text been reworked to fit the successful prototype in this genre by Alloy? What was their true role in the translation of this story into a ‘package’/product? After all, Alloy’s name appears before Viswanathan’s on the novel's copyright line, and this is significant. So while it is easy to attack and pillory the young, stereotypically successful model minority teenager, I do think the question of responsibility for those similarities is more complex, and lies as much if not more with Alloy’s “packaging” (and perhaps with her agent as well) as Viswanathan.”
Sharmila Sen is an Assistant Professor of English at Harvard and refused to comment, “I am afraid that I cannot comment on this incident. Kaavya was my student last semester and as a teacher I make it rule never to discuss my students outside the confines of departmental meetings.”
Amitav Ghosh, the eminent Indian American author, who is also a visiting professor at Harvard reportedly issued rare words of praise and endorsed Viswanathan’s work and said, "At Harvard, there are many, many very fine writers. Her writing has a kind of a pitch-perfect novelist's diction. At her age, that is very unusual." He was unavailable for comments after the scandal surfaced.
“Ms. Viswanathan says that she alone is responsible for borrowing portions of two novels by Megan McCafferty, "Sloppy Firsts" and "Second Helpings." But at the very least, the incident opens a window onto a powerful company with lucrative, if tangled, relationships within the publishing industry that might take fans of series like "The It Girl" by surprise,” says an article in the New York Times.
“… the publishing contract Little, Brown signed is actually with Alloy, which holds the copyright to "Opal" together with Ms. Viswanathan. Neither Little, Brown nor Alloy would comment on how much of the advance or the royalties — standard contracts give 15 percent of the cover price to the author — Ms. Viswanathan is to collect,” adds the article in the New York Times. Many wonder if this is a simple case of a packaging company using a smart and beautiful young woman to be their media facing person, to get publicity and boost sales of a formula based chick-lit novel.
Salman Rushdie issued a statement to the media soon after similarities between his novel Haroun and the Sea of Stories and Viswanathan’s book surfaced. “I haven't seen the book, I have seen the passages that were compared between the two books, I must say I don't accept the idea that this could have been accidentally or innocently done. The passages are too many and the similarities are too extensive,” Rushdie is reported to have said.
Like many other writers who shared angst at Viswanathan’s predicament, Rushdie said, “this young girl, pushed by the needs of a publishing machine and, no doubt, by her ambition should have fallen into this trap so early in her career. I hope she can recover from it.” Rushdie blamed both the author and the publisher for the mess and said "both are responsible. But I know when I write a book it's my name on the book so I stand or fall by what I sign. And so must she.”
Tanuja Desai Hidier’s official statement is yet to be released. During the course of my conversation with Viswanathan she clearly indicated that she had not read Tanuja Desai Hidier’s work. In fact she did not even know who Hidier was. I had to tell her about Hidier and her book and Viswanathan listened to me intently and said “Oh I should read it.”
Sashi Tharoor, author and the United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Communications and Public Information said in an exclusive interview with this writer, "I think people are losing sight of the fact that a teenage girl had the energy, creativity and discipline to write a book. Parts of it may have been derivative or imitative, but the fact remains that 90% of her material was not plagiarized. She is now going through a terrible repudiation that even much older people would find difficult to endure. I hope she does not let it destroy her faith in herself. I would urge her to remember what she felt like writing all those pages that came from her own imagination, and what she experienced on first seeing her finished book in her hands.”
“The best answer to her critics will be if Kaavya can return to that creative process -- write another book, because she knows in her heart of hearts that she is capable of it. It may not be a book that a packager would find lucrative, but it would be a truer book, and she will be a stronger writer for having been through this crucible and emerged from it with her writer's soul intact," he added.

by Visi Tilak

Monday, May 29, 2006

Kaavya Viswanathan -- These are a few of her favorite things…

Like Julie Andrews sings in the Sound of Music -- I simply remember my favorite things and then I don’t feel, so bad…. Here is a list of some of Viswanathan’s favorites which will hopefully help her recharge herself and get back to normalcy...
Favorite Books
By Indian Author: The Shadow Lines by Amitav Ghosh / The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy
By non Indian Author: The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro / Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh
Favorite Movie
Indian: Never really seen any, but I did like Monsoon Wedding and Bend it Like Beckham (if those count).
Non-Indian: Pretty Woman!
Favorite Actor
Indian: I really don't know any Indian actors....sorry!
Non-Indian: I love George Clooney - looks *and* talent.
Favorite Actress
Indian: Again, I'm not familiar with any. I guess Aishwarya Rai is an obvious choice though.
Non-Indian: Nicole Kidman
Favorite Theater/Ballet
I love the ballets of The Nutcracker and Sleeping Beauty. Favorite theater is definitely Guys and Dolls.
Favorite Kind of Music
Indian: I love the soundtrack for Gajani (I’m sure I’m spelling that wrong, but that's how it's pronounced I think....)
Non-Indian: Beatles, Oasis, U2, Coldplay, Keane.
Favorite Pastime
Shopping and reading in bed.
Favorite Cuisine
To Eat: French, Japanese. Indian is pretty high up there too though.
To Cook: French wins again.
Favorite Drink
Pina coladas. But plain, cold water is a huge favorite too.
Favorite Kinds of Dress
I like to be stylish - skirts and polo shirts, jeans, button down oxfords, ballerina flats and high heeled shoes.
Favorite electronic gadgets
My Treo (it's growing on me).
Favorite Restaurant
Indian: Namaskaar (it's this Indian place in a strip mall near my house, and it's stereotypical 'desi' food, and fattening and creamy, but absolutely delicious).
Non-Indian: Le Bristol (it's in Paris, and my parents took me there last summer. Crowning experience of my foodie life. Although, in NYC, Alain Ducasse at the Essex House is pretty fantastic too.)
Favorite Hangout
My bed (really). Outside if it's a nice day, wherever my friends are.
Favorite Cities/Places to visit
London and Paris
Favorites Clothes
To hang out in: Jeans and a cable knit sweater.
To be dressy in: I have a large collection of dresses. One gorgeous red Nicole Miller dress that never fails to make me feel glamorous.
Favorite Color
I really do like everything. But fuschia, and pale blue stand out.
Favorite Pets
Dog (I would love a little yorkshire terrier or a collie).
Favorite Mode of Transportation
Driving - it's what I miss most when I'm at college.
Favorite Car
Aston-Martin convertibles (maybe one day I can afford one). My car, which is a vintage '72 Mercedes SL350.
Favorite Part of the Day
Late afternoons.
Favorite Person(s)
My parents, my family.

The Mood at Harvard Post- Kaavya Viswanathan

Harvard University’s administrative board is looking into taking disciplinary action against Viswanathan. Opinions are distinctly divided, while one camp is for disciplinary action against her the other believes that this is not an academic issue; it is more of a personal issue. Is it the role of an academic institution to bestow not just education but also morals and ethics in its students, is an issue that is rising out of this controversy.
The Harvard Crimson in it’s staff editorial says that, “The Administrative Board does have—and should have—broad authority in cases such as the present one. As the Faculty of Arts and Sciences states in the Student Guide to the Administrative Board, “by accepting membership in the University, an individual joins a community ideally characterized by free expression, free inquiry, intellectual honesty, respect for the dignity of others, and openness to constructive change.” Membership in that community extends beyond the end of class each day and beyond the gates of the Yard.”
They also believe that, “The opportunity to attend a private university such as Harvard is a privilege rather than a right, and that privilege may be reasonably reconsidered in light of a student’s actions. The Ad Board explicitly recognizes “resolution of...breaches of community standards” as one of its primary functions.”
A dissent published in the same publication by two student editors Ramya Parthasarathy and Emma Lind takes a different stance, “To send Viswanathan to the Administrative Board is to send the wrong message to both the Harvard community and the community at large—namely, that Harvard’s name subsumes all other identities we might have before, during, and after our tenure here.” They firmly believe that, “The writing and publication of “Opal Mehta” lie entirely beyond the purview of Viswanathan’s academic work and therefore beyond the purview of the Ad Board. That she drafted the manuscript in a Lamont carrel is wholly irrelevant.”
Though reactions around campus ranged from disbelief to schadenfreude, students at the Harvard campus were not really discussing this in public. Nevertheless this has been a topic of conversation at the Harvard Crimson. Outsiders have also participated in dialogs and commented. An Indian journalist from Ahmedabad, India, is reported to have e-mailed the Crimson saying that this was the outcome of an Indian educational system where the emphasis is on memorization and learning by rote and an Indian students way of learning. The reaction from the Indian American students at Harvard University was immediate and they responded by saying that this was an Indian American student, not an Indian student.
Rabia Cheema, a Pakistani student at Harvard University who has not read Viswanathan’s book says, “ The campus is divided I would say amongst people who are confused about the entire incident [i.e. they don't want to believe that she plagiarized, but the evidence seems terribly solid] and those who have condemned her outright.” A biology major who expects to graduate 2008 she says, “I find it hard to believe that an intelligent girl like Kaavya would deliberately and knowingly plagiarize the work of others. Why would she go to the trouble of plagiarizing four different books? I find that the sentence structure and paragraph formulation that was duplicated in Kaavya's work is a staple of the chick-lit genre, and while some similarities are a lot more obvious than others, sometimes the so-called plagiarism is a bit hard to swallow.”
Cheema believes that a large part of the publicity of the Kaavya incident involved the fact that she was a Harvard sophomore, “I don't believe it will significantly impact upcoming writers at Harvard.” She also believes the media went a little bit too far, “Some of the similarities they that they 'caught' were frankly stretching it, and others were just ridiculous. I wonder how many similarities we would find if we perused the works of popular chick-lit today, not because they were plagiarized, but because certain plot lines, ideas and ways of writing have become native to that genre,” says Cheema who firmly believes whether Kaavya chooses to write again is completely her decision, and no one else, and although she might have a significantly harder time getting published, if she can, then she should be allowed to be published.
Paras Bhayani is a Harvard student works at the Harvard Crimson. One of the authors of the very first story that outed Viswanathan’s alleged discretions, he says, “The opinion here is that the whole situation with Kaavya is, quite simply, disappointing. None of us takes pleasure in seeing a peer fall. Everyone seems to have their theories: some argue that it was written by the book packager, many that she just internalized passages from other works, and others that she personally and deliberately copied. I think there are problems with jumping to any of these conclusions, but I could not propose a better one. The fact is that there were strikingly similar passages between her work and the works of others, and unless we can read her mind, none of us will ever know for sure what happened.”
Bhayani feels that were it not for the plagiarism allegations, Kaavya may have been the start of a new trend -- of publishing companies taking risks on younger writers. But because of these allegations, they will probably be more hesitant in the future, “I want to reiterate that it is not as though Harvard students were landing book deals left and right and that Kaavya's plagiarism is going to put an end to that. She was the first one with a book deal of this size, and because of the plagiarism, she may be the last one too, at least for some time to come.”
Bhayani says, “Kaavya received a tremendous amount of press for her book when it was published. It is naive to think that once the plagiarism allegations came out that the media would not cover them in great depth. But if a work is hyped and printed by a major publisher (Little Brown, Time Warner), it is unfair to attack the media for effectively performing it's oversight duty.”
“As for punishing Kaavya, it is important to keep in mind that her book deal is gone, her movie deal is gone, her book has been recalled, and Harvard is "gathering information" about the allegations and deciding whether or not it will look into possible disciplinary action,” articulates Bhayani.
Nehal Raj who will be graduating from Harvard Business School in Spring 2006 feels that it is unfortunate that Viswanathan’s editor or publisher did not catch her plagiarism before publication. “The fact that the author is a student at Harvard probably has a lot to do with the media attention—it makes for a more compelling headline.” He supposes that in the future, “Young adult writers will be especially careful to avoid plagiarizing the works of others, as the level of scrutiny will probably increase after this incident.” He firmly believes that, Viswanathan should be able to publish another book, “as long as the editor/publisher ensures that her book is her own work. Everyone deserves a second chance. Plus, the free publicity that she received from this incident might actually help to increase sales of any future books.”
Nikhil Raj, also a student at the Harvard Business School, finds it hard to buy Kaavya’s “internalization” argument on what happened, “There are way too many similarities between what she has written in Opal and what has been found in other literature. It is possible for an aspiring writer to be influenced by one or more established writers. I believe every writer has their own individual style no matter what their influences are, and that style develops over time as the person assimilates the different influences and comes up with their own.”
He believes that a truly mature writer will recognize when they have developed their unique style before they decide to unleash their work upon the world, “It is a tough profession for the author – both internally in the genesis of original ideas as well as externally in competing against other authors vying for the attention of the same, small audience.”
“I would hesitate to speculate on what really happened. My view is that the decision to publish Opal was immature on the part of Viswanathan as well as her publisher,” he says. Raj reckons that the issue highlights the lack of checks and balances in the highly competitive and struggling publishing industry, which is trying to find success, “Viswanathan must have known about the similarities between her work and the work of her influences (seems like there were many). Over time, she would have figured out what her own writing style was and would have been fundamentally prepared to deal with becoming a writer. I think she ventured out to become successful even before she became a writer.”
Raj is of the opinion that Viswanathan knew what was going on but he also believes it was a mistake from a young and immature kid, “The implications were not clear to her. She has special talent – not many kids have the energy, enthusiasm or opportunity to proceed as far as she did in getting her work out and published. She should be allowed to harness some of this talent and hopefully entertain all of us again in the future.”

The Birth And Demise of Opal Mehta

Whenever you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth. – Sir Arthur Conan Doyle


On April 22nd 2004 the New York Sun reported – “The agent, Jennifer Rudolph Walsh of the William Morris Agency, told the Franklin Hills, N.J.-born Ms. Viswanathan that Little Brown & Company, one of the oldest and most prestigious American publishers - now part of the Time Warner Group - agreed to a two-book deal with the teenager.” Kaavya Viswanathan, who was just 17 years old at the time, could not believe the news, she was ecstatic. To add to the contract was the amount she was reportedly getting paid - $500,000 for a two-book contract.
While taking a full course load at Harvard, Viswanathan finished writing "How Opal Mehta Got Kissed Got Wild and Got a Life" during her freshman year. Her manuscript was written at the Lamont Library in Harvard. She was under intense pressure to churn out at least 50 pages a day and eventually “How Opal Mehta Got Kissed, Got Wild, and Got a Life” was completed.
Why did she pick the name Opal? Viswanathan laughs and says that she was always amused with her mother’s friends name Ruby. So she picked another semi precious stone’s name for her protagonist.
Even though onlookers see many similarities between Opal and Viswanathan, she has consistently denied any similarities between her and her protagonist. She has disagreed that “How Opal Mehta Got Kissed, Got Wild, and Got a Life” is even semi autobiographical in nature.
What does she like best about her book? “I like Opal, I like her because she is so neurotic, out-there and so crazy. But you cannot help feeling bad for her. What she does is with the best of intentions and always manages to mess it up, I think that is true of a lot of people.”
Dreamworks optioned the movie rights to Viswanathan’s book, “I would really like a cameo in the movie,” she said smiling. She hoped to be able to look at the screenplay and make sure it conformed to her book and the original story and plot.
Plagiarism Scandal Emerges
Almost exactly a year after she had signed the contract with Little Brown, calamity struck. On Saturday April 22nd, David Zhou and Paras Bhayani were at work at the Harvard Crimson, performing their routine tasks when their editor passed on to them an anonymous tip that the Harvard Crimson, a student run daily, had received. This tip was about a Harvard student and a teenage writer whose book carried several passages that were similar to those in another young adult author, Megan McCafferty’s works “Sloppy Firsts” and “Second Helpings”. David Zhou, with Paras Bhayani’s help set about discovering the similarities in the two writers works and published a story the same evening elaborating the similarities and alleged plagiarism.
The next morning the national and international media had seen this story and started reporting on this as well. By Sunday this was a national scandal. The life of a 19-year-old teenager had gone from being a celebrity to a plagiarist. “A Harvard student had been found in a compromising position, and less than 24 hours later, a frisson of sadistic glee was creeping up the Internet's electronic backbone,” said the Harvard Independent.
Over the next few days plagiarism accusations kept increasing. First it was 14 similarities to McCafferty’s novels, then it was 29, and then it was 40. Allegations were aplenty. Almost to the point where the media had started scratching the bottom of the pot to produce more juicy news Similarities were found between Viswanathan’s book and Salman Rushdie’s Haroun and the Sea of Stories and, Tanuja Desai Hidier’s Born Confused and Meg Cabot’s The Princess Diaries. The New York Times also reported similarities between Viswanathan’s book and Sophie Kinsella’s “Can You Keep a Secret?”
Initially Viswanathan denied allegations and tried to stay away from it all. Eventually she apologized in her interview to Katie Couric on the Today show, her first after the plagiarism allegations - “When I was writing, I genuinely believed each word was my own, The last thing that I ever wanted to do was cause any distress to Megan McCafferty. ... I’ve been unable to contact her and all I want to do is tell her how profoundly sorry I am for this entire situation When I sat down to write my novel, my only intention was to tell the story of Opal. I was so surprised and horrified when I found these similarities, when I heard about them over this weekend. I just hope she believes I would never, ever intentionally lift her words. The last thing I ever wanted to do was upset her.”
In her interview with Katie Couric, Viswanathan said that she will be rewriting her book and get rid of any similarities. She also said that would include Megan McCafferty’s name in her acknowledgement. Megan McCafferty and her publishers were not impressed with Viswanathan’s apology. Variety reported that, “Thursday, lawyers from Little, Brown and Crown parent company Random House were working to negotiate a solution that would head off a lawsuit.” Soon after Little, Brown decided to pull the book off the shelves.
Variety in an article titled “D'Works kisses off 'Opal' - Scandal dulls 'Wild' novel” reported, “For DreamWorks, the scandal arrived just after the studio received a first draft of a screenplay by Kara Holden.” Dreamworks eventually pulled the plug on the project as well.
This was the end of Opal Mehta.

By Visi Tilak

Kaavya Viswanathan -- Who is she?

I was waiting at the Burdicks Coffee Shop in Cambridge, MA and right on time at 10am a vivacious good-looking young Indian American woman, dusky complexion, high cheek bones, petite slim built, in a short pink pleated skirt and a striped Ralph Lauren shirt came walking up the street talking to herself very intensely. We introduced ourselves and ordered mint teas. She saw some of the questions I had planned to ask her, sighed and told me how delighted she was that I did not have too many questions about her book.
My interview with Kaavya Viswanathan, which was done just a few days before the plagiarism accusations surfaced, was more about her as a person and her desires and ambitions. She had been talking about her book a lot she told me, having been interviewed by numerous publications and media companies. She was excited to talk about herself and told me about her life, what she wanted to achieve and her goals.
Kaavya Viswanathan was born in Chennai, India to parents Viswanathan Rajaraman a neurosurgeon and Mary Sundaram, a gynecologist who gave up her career to bring up her daughter. Her mother wanted her name to be different from the other Kavya’s of the world and spelt her name with an extra “a”. Kaavya Viswanathan moved to Scotland with her parents when she was 3. She has very warm memories of Scotland where she went to elementary school; she is so very fond of England that one of her dreams is to win the Booker Prize. Her parents eventually moved to New Jersey when she was 11.
Transition to the American way of life was a little bit difficult, since she was already in Middle School. The going only got easier for Viswanathan, because her parents were extremely liberal, socially and culturally. Academically her parents expected the best out of her, like many Indian parents, and wanted nothing less than an “A”. Once they realized that she was as committed to getting A’s in school they did not push her and encouraged her to go get a life, somewhat like Opal.
Viswanathan describes herself as laid-back, ambitious, and very motivated. She likes to have her share of fun but is good at prioritizing her tasks, and its no wonder she is able to juggle as many things as she has been doing. “I think I am a nice person,” she said smiling and added, “I am a very normal person, I am nothing special.” During her free time, what little she has of it, she likes to go to the movies, read, shop and cook gourmet cuisine.
“My parents are my role-models obviously,” says Viswanathan who grew up with an agnostic Hindu father and a religious protestant mother. When she visits home, Viswanathan goes to church sometimes with her mother. An only child she is very close to her family and has had Indian values instilled in her from a very young age. She believes that this and her focus on education have helped her through some arduous times. Her high school journalism teacher and Katherine Cohen her counselor from Ivywise are some other role models.
Viswanathan has dated around and had a boyfriend while at Harvard but she decided to break-up with him because it was getting too intense. She believes that her education and academia are of primary importance to her. In fact, she condones the decisions of some of her high school friends who made choices on their college based upon their boyfriends and relationships. Talking about intimate relationships she says laughingly, “One thing that my mother always told me was that nobody will buy the cow if they can get the milk for free.”
Writing has always been a part of Viswanathan, “I did not wake up one fine day and say, I have to write, writing is a part of me,” she says. “It’s been so much a part of my life that I did not even notice when I actually started writing,” she adds. Even as a little child she would write stories and her father would help her to send the stories out to various children’s magazines. “I cannot tell you how many rejection letters I got, but I really appreciate all that my father did for me,” says Viswanathan.
Like Opal, the protagonist in her novel Kaavya applied early action to Harvard and unlike Opal she was accepted. Not surprising since Kaavya had always been a star student. In fact she was accepted to Bergen County Academy for the Advancement of Science and Technology, a public magnet school in Hackensack, New Jersey, a high school for gifted students. Viswanathan was editor-in-chief of her school newspaper and took advance placement tests. "I was surrounded by the stereotype of high-pressure Asian and Indian families trying to get their children into Ivy League schools," she said in an interview with the New York Times.
Viswanathan’s parents had hired Katherine Cohen, founder of IvyWise, a private counseling service to help her through the college application process. Cohen who is the author of "Rock Hard Apps: How to Write the Killer College Application," read Viswanathan’s work and recommended her to the William Morris Agency.
An English concentrator at Harvard, British pre-war and post-war fiction, works by Kazuo Ishiguro and Evelyn Waugh are some of her favorite. She also enjoys reading Jane Austen and Henry James. She is a member of Women in Business, Kappa Kappa Gamma sorority and other social clubs. “I’m going to be writing whatever my job is, so I might as well get a real job says Viswanathan who wants to become an Investment Banker. “Eventually I would like to do something more entrepreneurial like start my own company,” she adds.
Where does she hope to be 10 years down the road – “Successful, Alive!” she says. “Professional success is very important to me at the moment.” A firm believer in equality she says, “I want to have a family, if I am making more money then I don’t see any reason why my husband should not be the stay at home father.” Viswanathan who sees herself living in New York City and intends to be financially independent says, “I am humorous, fun to be around, and I make sure I achieve my goal, these are some of my best qualities.” What does she like least about herself, “My mom says I talk back a lot. I do not tell people what I don’t like about them.”

by Visi Tilak

Friday, May 12, 2006

Book Buzz

It’s tittle-tattle time – time to check in on the scuttlebutt…
A new and upcoming book by Chitra Divakaruni, with a historical twist, very different from her previous works. While the movie version of her book, Mistress of Spices is being released in the U.K. she is busy rewriting the great epic - Mahabharata with a twist and a feminist perspective. That should be an intriguing read!!!
Expected to be published in early 2008, is “Zoom: The Race to Fuel the Car of the Future” by Iain Carson and Vijay V. Vaitheeswaran, both correspondents of the magazine - The Economist. The book will focus on forthcoming innovations in automobiles and energy, explaining how Toyota's rise to the top of the global car industry will transform Detroit, affect Big Oil and lead to the creation of clean cars. Vaitheeswaran is the author of the recent book on energy, Power to the People (FSG).
For those of you, who like me, have been wondering whatever happened to award winning writer of “Video”, Meera Nair, she is thriving and well and busy teaching fiction at NYU. The murmurs are that she is also working on a new novel set in Kerala in the 50's, when the world's first democratically elected communist government comes into office. Another award winning book in the works?
Jhumpa Lahiri’s fiction is resurfacing again. She is working on another collection of short stories. Her agent tells me that it will be published sometime in 2007, probably the fall. Her new short story in the May 8th 2006 issue of The New Yorker magazine came as a pleasant surprise to many. As I was reading the New Yorker I suddenly ran into her byline. No one could be happier. Titled “Once In A Lifetime” it starts like this – “I had seen you before, too many times to count, but a farewell that my family threw for yours, at our house in Inman Square, is when I begin to recall your presence in my life.” A fantastic quick read you must not miss.
Wondering what the current drift is looking like? Wondering what is on the market right now? Read on…
Along with India becoming an economic world power, the reach of India based writers is also extending farther and wider than ever before. Besides there are the Indian American writers who are continuing to write about and fictionalizing contemporary Indian American life and experiences as it gets more and more complex and entwined with western society. Then of course is the steady flow from those non-fiction authorities like Amartya Sen who analyze issues and draw interesting conclusions. Amy Lowell, an American poet of the imagist school, who posthumously won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry in 1926, best describes the Indian American works in the market, “All books are either dreams or swords, You can cut, or you can drug, with words.”
It’s time to forget and forgive those who plagiarize, bootleg and package and disrespect the god of writing – unintentionally or not, you know whom I am talking about. It’s time to hope that she is coping well and I for one am convinced that she will be back with a vengeance. Whether Malgudi or Madna, Swami or August, lets focus on those skilful wordsmiths who strive to make our reading a pleasurable and satisfying experience.

…Mystery behind astrology, or is it the other way around…

A woman detective Sonia Samarth, her cat Nidhi, and her assistant Jatin, a small detective agency in Pune – Stellar Investigations, all add up to some very interesting mystery reading. What makes Manjiri Prabhu’s works interesting however, and takes it away from just being another mystery novel, is that Sonia Samarth is also an astrologer and uses her knowledge of astrology to solve mysteries.
Creations of Manjiri Prabhu are very light and a great quick-read and it’s no surprise her second novel is being published in July 2006, perfect as a summer holiday book. Manjiri Prabhu, whose first mystery “The Cosmic Clues” was published in October 2004, is an animal welfare activist. She lives and writes from Pune, India.
In her second mystery, “The Astral Alibi”, Sonia Samarth sets out solving yet another collection of mysteries and crimes in the city of Pune. As she gets entangled in solving mysteries, she peruses the horoscopes of the suspects and victims and uses her celestial knowledge to find out factors and occurrences about characters that even they do not know sometimes. Prabhu’s book reflects life in contemporary India and also has some pleasant touches of humor and romance. However, there is something missing in Prabhu’s books, that oomph behind a mystery that’s leaves you biting your nails and dying to know what’s happening in the next page…

The Revival of August…

The sudden interest in the Indian way of life has resulted in several Indian writers works being republished in the US of late. Upamanyu Chatterjee’s, semi-autobiographical novel “English, August – An Indian Story” was republished by the New York Review of Books in April 2006. An introduction by Akhil Sharma precedes the novel, which is about a young IAS officer, Agastya Sen, who is sent to Madna, a fictitious city on his first assignment.
Compared to a sloth, Agastya, better known as August, comes from a very elite society and is thrown into the world of civil servants, a legacy of the British Raj, right after his graduation. He spends his time indulging in senseless absurdities and discovering the languid life of the civil servants in Madna, one of the hottest towns in India. Chatterjee, a civil servant himself, could not be more diagnostic of the life of IAS officers.
What stands out about this novel, was that it was written at a time when India’s generation X was looking for its own voice, and they found it in Chatterjee’s novel. Writer, Suketu Mehta, describes Chatterjee’s book perfectly when he says, “ It is the “Indianest” novel in English that I know of. Utterly uncompromised, wildly funny, and a revelation of everyday life in Modern India.” How true.

…Remembering R.K. Narayan (October 10, 1906- May 13, 2001)

R. K. Narayan’s works are being republished by Everyman’s Library. On May 13th 2006, as the literary world remembers R.K. Narayan, during the fifth anniversary of his death, many more readers in this world will be reading, more likely re-reading, his works. Swami and his Friends, The Bachelor of Arts, The Dark Room, The English Teacher, Mr. Sampath – The Printer of Malgudi, The Financial Expert, Waiting for the Mahatma, are those that have been published in two volumes.
In 1934, Graham Greene came across R. K. Narayan's manuscript, Swami and his Friends. He was impressed and since then started helping him publish his works in Britain. When Graham Greene asked Rasipuram Krishnaswami Narayan to shorten his name, he must have wisely foreseen R.K. Narayan’s brilliance and popularity.
One of the greatest Indian writers to dazzle the literary world with his unique voice, gentle humor and simple writing style, R.K. Narayan’s south Indian town of Malgudi is stranger to none. He can truly be credited with bringing the culture and traditions and life of Southern India to the rest of the world.
Son of a headmaster and the youngest of eight children, R.K. Narayan was born in Madras in 1906 and educated in Mysore. His life and writings were influenced by personal tragedies and through each of them he emerged a better writer. A prolific Veena artiste and a disciple of the great Veena artiste, Doraiswami Iyengar, he turned to music as solace during his periods of darkness. Somerset Maugham, and E.M. Forster were among R.K. Narayan’s contemporaries and friends. Malgudi Days one of R.K. Narayan’s collections of short stories, perhaps among his best works, was also made into a television serial.
(Possible Inset) R. K. Narayan's Published Works
• 1935: Swami And Friends
• 1937: Bachelor Of Arts
• 1938: The Dark Room
• 1939: Mysore
• 1945: The English Teacher
• 1947: An Astrologer's Day, And Other Stories
• 1949: Mr. Sampath - The Printer Of Malgudi
• 1952: The Financial Expert
• 1953: Grateful To Life And Death
• 1955: Waiting For The Mahatma
• 1956: Lawley Road, And Other Stories
• 1958: The Guide
• 1960: Next Sunday : Sketches And Essays
• 1961: The Man-Eater Of Malgudi
• 1964: My Dateless Diary: An American Journey
• 1965: Gods, Demons, And Others
• 1967: The Vendor Of Sweets
• 1970: A Horse And Two Goats, Stories
• 1972: The Ramayana; A Shortened Modern Prose Version
• 1974: My Days
• 1974: Reluctant Guru
• 1976: The Painter Of Signs
• 1978: The Mahabharata: A Shortened Modern Prose Version
• 1980: The Emerald Route
• 1982: Malgudi Days
• 1983: A Tiger For Malgudi
• 1985: Under The Banyan Tree And Other Stories
• 1986: Talkative Man
• 1988: A Writer's Nightmare: Selected Essays
• 1989: A Story-Teller's World: Stories, Essays, Sketches
• 1990: The World Of Nagaraj
• 1992: Malgudi Landscapes: The Best Of R.K. Narayan
• 1993: The Grandmother's Tale: Three Novellas
• 1993: Salt & Sawdust: Stories And Table Talk

Monday, May 8, 2006

Jhumpa Lahiri's Short Story in The New Yorker

ONCE IN A LIFETIME
by Jhumpa Lahiri

I had seen you before, too many times to count, but a farewell that my family threw for yours, at our house in Inman Square, is when I begin to recall your presence in my life. Your parents had decided to leave Cambridge, not for Atlanta or Arizona, as some other Bengalis had, but to move all the way back to India, abandoning the struggle that my parents and their friends had embarked upon. It was 1974. I was six years old. You were nine. What I remember most clearly are the hours before the party, which my mother spent preparing for everyone to arrive: the furniture was polished, the paper plates and napkins set out on the table, the rooms filled with the smell of lamb curry and pullao and the L’Air du Temps my mother used for special occasions, spraying it first on herself, then on me, a firm squirt that temporarily darkened whatever I was wearing. I was dressed that evening in an outfit that my grandmother had sent from Calcutta: white pajamas with tapered legs and a waist wide enough to gird two of me side by side, a turquoise kurta, and a black velvet vest embroidered with plastic pearls. The three pieces had been arrayed on my parents’ bed while I was in the bath, and I had stood shivering, my fingertips puckered and white, as my mother threaded a length of thick drawstring through the giant waist of the pajamas with a safety pin, gathering up the stiff material bit by bit and then knotting the drawstring tightly at my stomach. The inseam of the pajamas was stamped with purple letters within a circle, the seal of the textile company. I remember fretting about this fact, wanting to wear something else, but my mother assured me that the seal would come out in the wash, adding that, because of the length of the kurta, no one would notice it, anyway.
My mother had more pressing concerns. In addition to the quality and quantity of the food, she was worried about the weather: snow was predicted for later that evening, and this was a time when my parents and their friends didn’t own cars. Most of the guests, including you, lived less than a fifteen-minute walk away, either in the neighborhoods behind Harvard and M.I.T. or just across the Mass Avenue Bridge. But some were farther, coming by bus or the T from Malden or Medford or Waltham. “I suppose Dr. Choudhuri can drive people home,” she said of your father as she untangled my hair. Your parents were slightly older—seasoned immigrants, as mine were not. They had left India in 1962, before the laws welcoming foreign students changed. While my father and the other men were still taking exams, your father already had a Ph.D., and he drove a car, a silver Saab with bucket seats, to his job at an engineering firm in Andover. I had been driven home in that car many nights, after parties had gone late and I had fallen asleep in some strange bed or other.

FROM THE ISSUECARTOON BANKE-MAIL THIS
Our mothers had met when mine was pregnant. She didn’t know it yet; she was feeling dizzy and had sat down on a bench in a small park. Your mother was perched on a swing, gently swaying back and forth as you soared above her, when she noticed a young Bengali woman in a sari, wearing vermillion in her hair. “Are you feeling all right?” your mother asked in the polite form. She told you to get off the swing, and then she and you escorted my mother home. It was during that walk that your mother suggested that perhaps mine was expecting. They became instant friends, spending their days together while our fathers were at work. They talked about the lives they had left behind in Calcutta: your mother’s beautiful home in Jodhpur Park, with hibiscus and rosebushes blooming on the rooftop, and my mother’s modest flat in Maniktala, above a grimy Punjabi restaurant, where seven people existed in three small rooms. In Calcutta they would probably have had little occasion to meet. Your mother had gone to a convent school and was the daughter of one of Calcutta’s most prominent lawyers, a pipe-smoking Anglophile and a member of the Saturday Club. My mother’s father was a clerk in the General Post Office, and she had neither eaten at a table nor sat on a commode before coming to America. Those differences were irrelevant in Cambridge, where they were both equally alone. Here they shopped together for groceries, and complained about their husbands, and cooked at either our stove or yours, dividing up the dishes for our respective families when they were done. They knitted together, switching projects when one of them got bored. When I was born, your parents were the only friends to visit the hospital. I was fed in your old high chair, pushed along the streets in your old pram.
During the party it started snowing, as predicted, stragglers arriving with wet, white-caked coats that we had to hang from the shower-curtain rod. For years, my mother talked about how, when the party ended, your father made countless trips to drive people home, taking one couple as far as Braintree, claiming that it was no trouble, that this was his last opportunity to drive the car, anyway. In the days before you left, your parents came by again, to bring over pots and pans, small appliances, blankets and sheets, half-used bags of flour and sugar, bottles of shampoo. We continued to refer to these things as your mother’s. “Get me Parul’s frying pan,” my mother would say. Or, “I think we need to turn the setting down on Parul’s toaster.” Your mother also brought over shopping bags filled with clothes that she thought I might be able to use, that had once belonged to you. My mother put the bags away and took them with us when we moved, a few years later, from Inman Square to a house in Sharon, incorporating the clothes into my wardrobe as I grew into them. Mainly they were winter items, things you would no longer need in India. There were thick T-shirts and turtlenecks in navy and brown. I found these clothes ugly and tried to avoid them, but my mother refused to replace them. And so I was forced to wear your sweaters, your rubber boots on rainy days. One winter I had to wear your coat, which I hated so much that it caused me to hate you as a result. It was blue-black with an orange lining and a scratchy grayish-brown trim around the hood. I never got used to having to hook the zipper on the right side, to looking so different from the other girls in my class with their puffy pink and purple jackets. When I asked my parents if I could have a new coat they said no. A coat was a coat, they said. I wanted desperately to get rid of it. I wanted it to be lost. I wished that one of the boys in my class, many of whom owned identical coats, would accidentally pick it up in the narrow alcove where we rushed to put on our things at the end of the day. But my mother had gone so far as to iron a label inside the coat with my name on it, an idea she’d got from her subscription to Good Housekeeping.

Read the full story at --
http://www.newyorker.com/archive/2006/05/08/060508fi_fiction