Mayank Chhaya Daily

India's Mr. Pulp Fiction

Surendra Mohan Pathak is India's Mr. Pulp Fiction. Global Post has a charming little short on him. I find his candor refreshing. 

Cool Playaway edition of MMM

I have just received a copy of the Playaway edition of my book ‘Dalai Lama: Man Monk Mystic’ brought out by Bolinda of Australia. Playaway is described as the world’s first preloaded digital audio player.

It is not so much the book as the technology that I am quite excited about. The Amazon listing of the book prices my Playaway version at $84.99, which is obviously not the kind of money that a lot of people would be willing to spend on a book even if it is a cool new technology. I am sure with time the price of Playaway is bound to come down.

I played some parts of the book. The audio quality is flawless and controls are very easy to handle. The narrator of my book is a highly regarded Australian actor and narrator called Paul English who has done a superb job of reading what I wrote. It is a tribute to Paul’s craft that the book sounds better to me even though I have written it.

Presenta Mayank Chhaya su libro "Dalai Lama. Hombre, monje, místico"

Just as I was wondering what to write this morning, I came across this. After the outbreak of the swine flu, the world wanted to hear something redeeming out of Mexico. And here it is. I presume what is written about the book is positive. If not, well so be it.

México, 2 May. (Notimex).- El libro "Dalai Lama. Hombre, monje, místico", de Mayank Chhaya ofrece, a través de sus 384 páginas, la biografía autorizada del líder espiritual de miles de personas y símbolo político de la resistencia del Tíbet.

El Dalai Lama autorizó, en 1997, al periodista indio Mayank Chhaya, quien curiosamente no profesa la religión budista, a escribir sobre su vida.

A partir de ese momento, Chhaya y el Dalai Lama mantuvieron más de una docena de amplias entrevistas en la residencia del gobernante del Tíbet en el exilio.

Como resultado de estos encuentros, ya está en el mercado editorial "Dalai Lama. Hombre, monje, místico", un retrato en profundidad de una figura que suscita un inagotable interés en personas de todo el planeta. Chhaya escribe sobre el Tíbet y la tradición budista de la que emergió el Dalai Lama.

La figura de este líder, sugiere el texto, "es necesaria para ayudar a los lectores a entender el contexto que dio forma a sus creencias, su forma de ejercer la política y sus ideales". El autor lo dibuja bajo las luces de su vida en el exilio y los papeles que debe adoptar como máximo responsable de sus seguidores.

"Como periodista me he acercado a este libro como a una historia en la que los personajes son reales y contemporáneos. Más allá de este hecho, durante el transcurso de los más de siete años de investigación, he descubierto facetas del Dalai Lama que pocas personas han tenido el privilegio de explorar", señala el autor.

Es por ello que "Dalai Lama. Hombre, monje, místico" ofrece una visión informativa y equilibrada sobre el personaje y su labor. Escrito con la plena participación del Dalai Lama, esta biografía muestra la faceta más pública y como el eterno misterio que envuelve a este líder espiritual del mundo de hoy.

Chhaya escribe acerca del Tíbet y de la tradición budista de la cual nació el Dalai Lama y con ello, ayuda al lector a entender el contexto en el que se desarrollan sus creencias, su formación política y sus ideales. El libro no es para especialistas tibetanos, sino para todo lector interesado en el tema.

En síntesis, la lectura de esta nueva entrega de Mayak Chhaya resulta un relato extraordinario, actual y verídico, que puede presumir de estar elaborado desde tres puntos de vista distintos, pero igualmente documentados: El hombre, el monje y el místico, en una biografía que aproxima el mito al lector del mundo.

Sankar: London cognoscenti's new cheer

It is satisfying to see a 75-year-old Bengali writer, and not some media savvy upstart, finding some international glory in London. The author, Mani Sankar Mukherjee who just goes by his middle name is discovering the joys of being feted by London’s cognoscenti for his 47-year-old book ‘Chowringhee’ which has now been translated into English.

"For 47 years I had this typically Bengali arrogance about me.'Let them come to me,' I said, 'I won't go to them'," Sankar told Dipankar De Sarkar, the London correspondent of IANS.

"That is what happened. And now I feel relaxed. You know, it's been worth the wait," said Sankar with a broad smile.

"When 'Chowringhee' was first published and became a bestseller, many people in Kolkata began gossiping, 'Oh, he is an illiterate. What does he know about writing'."

Does he feel vindicated perhaps?

"No, no. Not vindicated. I feel relaxed, just relaxed."

"It's an utter treat," proclaimed Boyd Tonkin, literary editor of The Independent.

"I won't be quite alone in claiming that this half-century old novel translated from the Bengali might, to many eyes, supply more unashamed, reader-transporting enjoyment than any other fiction of the year."

Of course, in his native Bengal and elsewhere in India Sankar is a big literary figure and needs no vindication.

The handsome young Shakespeare

A portrait (left in the illustration above) owned by the Cobbe family in Britain for 300 years is most likely belived to be the real portrait of Shakespeare. Professor Stanley Wells, a leading authority on the playwright, has been quoted by the media as saying that he is 90% certain that the portrait is indeed the great writer's. Apparently he was far more handsome than what has been represented so far.

If you excuse the shoddy manipulation by me, if there ever is a movie proposed on him drawn from this portrait I am casting Keanu Reeves as the young writer. As you can see in the images in the middle and right it is clear that Reeves can be made to look like the writer. I am not sure of Reeves in the histrionics department though. All future filmmakers remember my casting fee.

What is most disturbing about this post is that I actually found the time to create the illustration and write this useless piece.