…random men everywhere who aren’t Aish/Bips/Shabana-devotees gnash their teeth and shake their fists at the sky impotently. Or not.
Oooooh, DRAMA! An anonymous tipster leaves juicy news on the…well, news tab (via SAWF):
Bollywood star Rani Mukerhee, 29, is all set to marry film maker Aditya Chopra, 36, son of Yash Raj Chopra. A commitment ceremony or “Roka” was held Monday at the Chopra bungalow in Bombay.
A source close to the family told the Hindustan Times: “The roka took place at the same Chopra bungalow where Chandni was shot. Around 60 people (family and friends) attended the ceremony that included Rani’s parents Ram and Krishna Mukherjee, brother Raja and his wife. Present from the Chopra clan were brother Uday, dad Yash Chopra and mum Pamela Chopra.”
Awww, that’s so cute! My last two german shepherds, who were litter-mates, were also named Raja and Rani. And no, I didn’t name them, so shut up.
“Rani wore a maroon saari with silver embroidery and Aditya wore a kurta-pyjama, both designed by designer Pallavi Jaikishan. Pam aunty didn’t seem very happy, as she has a soft corner for Adi’s ex-wife, Payal. Another function will take place at Rani’s house next week,” the source added.
Why do I care, when I am a clue-free Mallu ABCD who has gone on record as not paying attention to Bollywood? Because it’s JUICY. Duh.
Aditya was recently divorced from Payal Chopra, whom he married in 2001.
Ah, so THAT is why anonymous tipster namechecked Angelina Jolie! Apparently, Rani is a homewrecker, but my half- third- quarter-hearted googling found nothing. If the girl Big B got creepy with in KKKG really did break up this guy’s marriage, I’m sure one of you will edify us with confirmation of such sordid details.
According to the Mumbai Mirror, Aditya’s decision to divorce Payal, who is the daughter of a close friend of father Yash Raj, has strained relations between the father and son.
I can’t be the only one thinking…all this would make a great Bollywood movie? Life imitates art…? Annnnnd, I’m bored again. Who wants to talk about Obama, caste or saffron balls? Anyone?
Not to open a new can of worms, but the term home-wrecker (even though I know it was used humorously) makes me cringe a bit – if whassname Chopra chose to end his marriage, or Brad Pitt did, that’s their business, they were the ones with commitments to keep or break, not the women who entered their lives.
Back to regular gossipping!
this is the book with the unbearably graphic descriptions of a hirsute lothario and his daring, swinging-from-the-banyan-tree affair with his ex?
shouldn’t this thread just be about her delightfully husky voice? which this chopra fellow will now be hearing for the rest of this marriage?
Oh no Camille…I can’t speak any languages, cook any of the food, but even I have read that book!
I would revoke it, but being a bleeding heart liberal I hand out brown cards and wads of my parents’ money out in the streets to anyone and everyone… Especially welfare moms, homeless people and drug addicts.
Sorry for the politics intrusion on the books/Rani discussion. Every time Manju mentions Monica Lewinsky near my name I get a little turned on…
I think a book club is a great idea as long as we don’t read ‘One Night At The Call Centre’ – ick, ick, ick (said the book snob).
A Suitable Boy was entertaining but not a must-read, if you ask me. Brown cards may now be restored and subcontinental doorstopper fiction assigned to its doorstopping functions.
I liked Love and Longing in Bombay, and yes, the hirsute Lothario is in one of the stories, and he shows up as a protagonist in Sacred Games too!
it’s OK , camille – 1400 pages is something that requires quite a commitment. i do, however, more than highly recommend it, unlike SP, i do consider it a must-read – it is, in fact, my favourite book. and not for the desiness, but for his language and narrative style. i’ve read it once through properly, but have re-read in bits at least 10 times. it’s that marvellous.
“A Suitable Boy” obviously looks like a great book (and no, I don’t do thousand page books, I just don’t), but I found the music of the dialogue a little different than what I am used to.
Case in point – chapter 1, verse 1 : ‘You too will marry a boy I choose,’ said Mrs Rupa Mehra firmly to her younger daughter. Now, is that “You too will marry a boy I choose” or is it “You too will marry a boy I choose”. It is not clear where the emphasis is. Plus, there are issues of translation of Hindi dialogue into English. I hope this last point will not be contested. Such issues of translation have been known since the fourth century at the very least.
I personally prefer over-the-South authenticity.
the rumor mills spin that rani mukherjee & that smoking ball of fire, govinda, were supposedely embroiled in an affair for quite a while(almost 5 years), estranging him from his wife and family. it then appears that his political aspirations got in the way and the two parted ways.
shankar, this book is more british-indian book (since it takes place on 1954) than a desi one. so most of the dialogue is not in hindi – over the span of the entire book, probably only 50-some instances. as for its non-typicalness, that is the est part – vikram seth has a writing style that is like non other – it’s the first time i came to enjoy english prose for not just word-selection, but sentence structure. i could go on and on, so i’ll stop here. as for the sentence you mentioned – i’m not sure what the difference is between the two emphases, but it’s at the wedding of her sister, who had an arranged marriage, so perhaps that helps you.
as for superstar – he was at his best is basha, i think.
SP – do you mean sartaj? yes, i was glad that he chose that particular character from his short stories to expand into a full-time book.
rani – not a big fan. i feel most hindi actresses tend to overact or just not get it right, save two or three. since i’m not into her acting, i pay more attention to her clothes, which, unfortunately, tend to be hit or miss these days.
cool blogs
shankar, this book is more british-indian book (since it takes place on 1954) than a desi one. so most of the dialogue is not in hindi – over the span of the entire book, probably only 50-some instances. According to you, then, the dialogues in the book are not Hindi dialogues translated into English, but in fact, just Indians speaking in English? Then, if it is supposed to be a vignette of India from 1954, it is one that has been carefully edited to not have any dialogues in Hindi (I mean – how bizarre is that!?), then how good a vigneette is it? (“Maximum City” may not have this problem. Hint, hint 🙂 ). as for the sentence you mentioned – i’m not sure what the difference is between the two emphases, but it’s at the wedding of her sister, who had an arranged marriage, so perhaps that helps you. In the first, there is a note of insistence on the part of the speaker. In the second, there isn’t.
May I suggest a Movie Club? I am thinking movies like Pather Panchali and Manthan. (This could be in addition to the Book Club.) There are some movies that I want to have watched, but somehow can’t actually make it through in one sitting. At least, if I know that it is for the Movie Club, I will make sure not to fall asleep watching Satyajit Ray 😛
shankar, it is a good vignette, but perhaps not a vignette of what you wish it to be. the language is english – and like most novels written by desi authors writing in english, the bulk of the book is in english – even if the characters in real life would be speaking in hindi or another desi language. in that sense, parts are indians speaking in english, and parts are people speaking in hindi which have been translated for the english reader (with a sparse scattering of transliterated phrases). i think it’s actually more bizarre to judge desi literature written in english based on its use of transliterated phrases and label it inauthentic if it lacks them. if you really want to read something involving hindi, why would you choose any book where the hindi is transliterated into english – why not just read a hindi book, in devanagiri script? i don’t think you can compare maximum city, since that is not fiction. and the settings are very different – much of a suitable boy takes place in an academic/literray setting, right after the british quit – surely you will agree that the british influence was more pronounced in this era and setting? conversely, maximum city focuses on bombay – so there has to more hindi or marathi. by your logic, though, perhaps even maximum city missed the beat by not being written in hindi? but i wouldn’t say that, because india is ‘like that only’ – so multi-faceted that oftentimes it is hard to completely separate the english from the indian languages.
then it is the former. if nothing else, mrs. rupa mehra is all about insistence, and indignation.
ak, I am not arguing with you here. I suspect we are saying the same things but in different terms.
why not just read a hindi book, in devanagiri script? A fine idea. Is there a Project Gutenberg for Hindi out there? Does anyone know where I can find, say, Premchand’s “Shatranj ke Khiladi”?
no. 88
Hate to admit it but I have a mad crush on him. Can’t tell you why. Can’t stand his acting – which is hammy and cheesy – except when he is forced to calm down as in Swades. He makes his mediocrity sound like a virtue. He claims that his modesty prevents him from getting involved in big charitable undertakings (i.e. he is a modest guy so he only does small things here and there). He will endorse anything as long as the money is right. He has no artistic integrity and he seems quite proud of it. So, why the hell do all of us have such a thing for him? Damn! There’s just something about him. If you watch koffee with Kiran, it appears all the actresses (young and old) have a thing for him too. I bet if Rani had a chance with SRK, there would be no Aditya in the picture.
I read Maximum city over a 4 day period during x-mas. I had to read it for my bookclub- that’s why I was able to read it so quickly. Fantastic book. Still can’t stop thinking about it. The last part is very haunting (I won’t say what it is and be a spoiler).
I started Suitable Boy and really liked it, but figured life was too short for a 1200 page book. I just got the audio book last week from the library and am going to try it out. I’ve never “read” fiction with audiobooks since I love words and rereading too much, but it seems like that’s the only realistic way for me to do Suitable Boy. I really enjoyed his Golden Gate when I read it a while ago.
Speaking of Indian English, I didn’t think Namesake really had that for Ashoke, except at one point where he calls Ashima from Cincinatti and says, “Do me one thing.”. Did anybody notice that? (I am not a fan of Jhumpa Lahiri. I finally read Namesake a month ago because everybody I knew insisted I should, and while I could relate to some incidents in the book, she pulled off the same feat she did in Interpreter of Maladies of being both overwrought and clinical at the same time. Every description is as detailed as it can be and then some, but it seems like the work of an especially erudite and articulate fly on the wall who couldn’t really care about what happened to the characters.)
ak, the novel that really threw me for a loop vis-a-vis sentence structure was White Jazz. I think I was stuck on the first 10 pages for a week, but once I got used to it, boy, did it fit the novel like a glove (or a book jacket?). The cryptic headline like structure becomes more and more intense as the action progresses, and very effectively captures the sense of urgency.
As for sooperstar, I saw Sivaji on opening weekend. It was everything that I’d expected from the combination of Shankar and Rajni. I highly recommend it. I’ll write up something more later.
Hmm.. surprisingly, SRK has an avid female following who are not sympathetic to my dismissal of his independently mobile lower lip! Who woulda thunk? 🙂
female following that is not sympathetic. This is what I get for editing in the fly, and mocking SRK.
I am not a fan of Jhumpa Lahiri.
And here I thought I was the only one…
editing ON the fly (please don’t think dirty thoughts). Alright, I apologize. SRK is the greatest.
i think it’s great that there is so much indian literature in english – it’s able to reach a far larger audience than if written in a single indian language. but, yes, i think indian language literature has suffered, if only slightly, because of this. not that it would help me – my hindi/tamil reading is painfully slow…
rahul, i am not a big fan of namesake, either. or jhumpa lahiri. i first read the short story in the new yorker, which is just about gigol (author and name), and then read the namesake for the same reasons as you, and did not like it at all. the short story got it right, but the extension into a full story felt like she was pushing her luck. and this is a terrible thing to say of any author, but irfan khan in the movie conveyed the character much better than she did.
i beseech you to read a suitable boy, rather than hear it. maybe you will hear it and then want to read it – but it’s one of those rare books where the words jump at you. plus, sometimes those audiobooks spoil it with their delivery. btw thanks for the suggestion – i was thinking of reading black dahlia, but perhaps i will try this first.
Less SRK, more Irfan Khan. That’s really what the world needs. 🙂
which is just about gogol
I remember reading sometime back about an alleged affair between the 2 (rani and Adi) and that she was the reason for a possible split in the home.
So others found sacred games and loved it too! I am deep in it right now and like it so far. Only problem, I keep remembering all the cuss words at inappropriate times of the day. I think they are permanently stuck in my brain. But Sartaj is a personal favorite.
Love Audiobooks for a long drive.
Rahul: I love it – “his independently mobile lower lip!” As you can see, not a fan (emphatic that)! And then this – “As for Rani, she has a voice that sounds like it’s been subject to decades of Marlboros (Wills?) and Bud Lights, run over by a car, and then hung out to dry.” You nail em well! Ever thought about writing pro?
We need more from Arbaaz Khan……………………………………………’s wife.
As for sooperstar, I saw Sivaji on opening weekend.
Haven’t seen it yet, but I heard that it was sort of not the typical thalaivar movie. Also, what’s up with Rajni in the blond wig in the trailer?
Alright, maybe I should just man up and read Suitable Boy. Between that and Sacred Games, my backlog is going to pile up faster than the bad guys at a Rajnikanth fight.
munimma, the description of Rani (at least the part about being run over, if I remember) is my approximation of a sentence from a Tom Waits profile I read years ago. So, maybe it was a little Kaavya’esque of me to have used it. As for wanting to write pro, me and 3 million others. But, as HMF always points out, we Indian men suffer from the hard bigotry of high expectations. 🙂
Well, if the pro writing thing doesn’t work out, there’s always stand up. You could be the anti-Russell Peters.
ak, my hindi/tamil reading Not another trilingual? 🙂
I think Jhumpa Lahiri’s compact style is better suited for the short story. “The interpreter of maladies” was better as a book although “Namesake”, the book, I thought, was finely detailed and quite affectionate too.
I am getting more pro-“Suitable Boy” by the minute. Vikram Seth is really the master of the language. (I haven’t read “A Suitable Boy”, but I read “Golden Gate” about ten years ago). It looks like he might have pulled off the difficult job of doing Hindi dialogue in English.
hema, yes, there was a blond wig involved. Among other things. No more shall be said.
Also, what’s up with Rajni in the blond wig in the trailer? I just had to check it.
A blond wig AND dreadlocks? Wow.
That’s not the half of it.
There was a little something missing in namesake, which I didn’t feel in interpreter. So I guess, she might be better off with shorties. Or may be, improve on the biggies.
128 does sound interesting.
Nothing is going to make me see the oldie in the blondie on the big screen. May be on a dvd, after the hype and the hoopla gets their dues. Thaangamudiyala pa sami!
That’s not the half of it.
Ok, now you’re scaring me…
Well, let’s just say that they really should have been given a list of hair-don’ts.
Kannaa, ithellam verum jujubee.
you can also add telugu to that tally (but no reading skills). actually, the sort of telugu we speak is so bastardized that i rarely tell people we speak telugu.
excellent – another convert! yes, he really has a very interesting understanding of english. the iambic pentameter of golden gate was impressive.
i’m with munimma. chandramukhi was a joke, compared to the original manichitrathazhu. though he’s good for one or two one-liners.
ok, from rediff.com – Even as some Mumbai newspapers claim that actress Rani Mukerji and filmmaker Aditya Chopra are engaged, Rani’s father Ram Mukherjee issued a press release on Wednesday, denying the speculation.
‘This is a rumour; the news is not true at all. Rani is busy with her work and she will not do anything secretly,’ he said.
Just good friends?
It was said before, but really needs more discussion. No opinions on that man fuzz? Or that blotch of mulligatawny soup on his upper lip, as Jeeves would put it?
BLASPHEMY!
I…am…shaking.
And shuddering.
And muttering.
It is the greatest book, ever. My favorite book of all time. And yes, if you haven’t already, you should “woman” up and read it; it’s obviously possible to get through it once, since I have read it THREE TIMES.
ASB was the original reason FOR an SM book club, it would have been the inaugural book. It still might be, since I am so OFFENDED by the callous, heartless disrespect shown it here. 😉
There is no book but ASB, and Vikram Seth is its genius author. I expect a fatwa in…ten minutes.
you mean in BLACK?
Speaking of doorstoppers :), there’s another one coming out on July 21.
A question to MAX CITY fans..anyone by chance ever run into Mona Lisa? No spoilers for those who haven’t read…
Haven’t seen it. 🙂 I just remember this weird dance sequence in KKKG where Big B was leering at Rani, and I thought she was meant to be his kid’s love interest. Or something. I don’t know!
Anna, in admitting this I may fall in your estimation quite considerably – but I haven’t read it either! Although I did buy two of the hardcover editions. One at full price – and gifted it (inscribed ‘To a Suitable Girl’ – btw, that’s one of the reasons your blog domain is so evocative for me.) The other copy stayed with me for nearly a decade till I gifted it to a Library. I don’t think the first one was read either – but guess what – since you’ve read it thrice plus, that was once for each of us 🙂 And I now really do think of you as The Suitable Girl.
I started reading “A Suitable Boy” several years ago but put it down immediately because I thought it was full of cliches. But maybe I should give it another chance.
ak, excellent – another convert! yes, he really has a very interesting understanding of english. the iambic pentameter of golden gate was impressive. Count me as a moderate supporter. I had only a vague recollection of “A Suitable Boy”. My memory of the book was this : the dialogue in the book did not come out quite as well as dialogue does in real life or in movies. The key problem is the issue of language translation.
Then, I read the first few pages on Amazon. One thing that Vikram Seth gets absolutely right is recreating the atmosphere of India of the 50’s. It then occurred to me that Vikram Seth was adopting a certain type of English for the dialogue portion of the book. (People who already know about these issue of translation might say I’m repeating myself after what I have said before. I hope I am clarifying matters).
The problem arises because Vikram Seth has made this choice : to render Hindi dialogue in English. In representing dialogue, he must necessarily render it with reference to the original cultural context in which it arose. I am not just hypothesizing about this issue of language translation vis-a-vis Vikram Seth. Vikram Seth is, no doubt, aware of these issues, and I am almost certain that he has consciously worked on solving these issues in “A Suitable Boy”. In “Three Chinese Poets”, for instance, he translated works by three different Chinese poets. What were the author’s aims? Check out what the jacket on the book says :
The poems work well together; rich with interaction between the beauties of the physical world and the suffering of the human condition in times of upheaval, they give a tangible sense of China in the final years of the Tang dynasty. Each poet’s treatment of these dichotomies springs from his spiritual source: Wang Wei is Buddhist, Li Bai Taoist, and Du Fu Confucian. Seth has blended accessibility with near-faithful recreation of the rhythm and tone of the originals. These poems spring easily from page and tongue, as in this couplet from Du Fu’s “Spring Scene in Time of War”: “I scratch my white hair, which has grown so thin/ It soon won’t let me stick my hatpin in.”
That’s what they hoped to do. But see what this reviewer on Amazon says :
I picked this book primarily because after reading both verse and prose from the author, I know the translation would make a great reading. It did. I liked the poetry, the ideas, and whatever Chinese poets must have thought about was communicated as well as possible in well-compiled text. I cannot read or understand Chinese, but my Chinese friends found the translations to be inadequate and half-hearted representations of what they described as timeless, classic poetry. Knowing the difficulty in faithfully representing a different culture for an author, and the complexity of translation of any verse, cultures, times and metaphors, I think Vikram Seth as always did a commendable job.
There are losses that arise when there is translation, and this is most certainly an area where “A Suitable Boy” ()based on what you have said and what I have gathered after reading 4 pages :)) seems to have succeeded – in rendering Hindi dialogue into English without perceptible loss.
Anna, BLASPHEMY! I…am…shaking. And shuddering. And muttering. Heh. Serve it up, Suitable Girl!
ah, the overly-charismatic call-and-answer segment in “Shava Shava” where AB1.0 leers at her “roop hai tera sona sona, sona teri paayal…” He does pay her a little extra attention and seem overly excited about her joining the family, doesn’t he? 😉
ANNA, i love you! i must have read it at least 10 times. i met vikram seth last year at a book signing – he was, literally, enchanting.
shankar, i agree. i actually found some of his transliterated hindi a bit off. but in his english (not hindi to english) he gets the tone right always, and this is difficult, considering there are so many characters with such varying educational backgrounds (for instance, it becomes an issue when lata is set up with a prospective). in his hindi to english, also, you can usually get the cadence of what he is saying – perhaps insignificant to the non-hindi speaker, but his words are chosen so that you know almost exactly how it would have been said in hindi (this became clear to me when i re-read the book after learning hindi). i think this is one of those few books set in india that does not necessarily require one to be desi to have full appreciation.
forget K3G. You have to see how silly it was when you watch “Kajra Re” from “Bunty Aur Babli”. ABsr and ABjr both trying to kick it to Aish Rai.