{"id":2269,"date":"2005-09-22T23:30:47","date_gmt":"2005-09-23T04:30:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sepiamutiny.com?p=2269"},"modified":"2005-09-22T23:54:03","modified_gmt":"2005-09-23T04:54:03","slug":"bombay_the_meht_1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/sepiamutiny.com\/blog\/2005\/09\/22\/bombay_the_meht_1\/","title":{"rendered":"Bombay, the Mehta Way"},"content":{"rendered":"

In case you missed it in hardcover, Maximum City<\/a> will be out in paperback next Tuesday. \n\"sepiabook2.jpg\"<\/a><\/p>\n\n

I will spare you my opinion of the book since Suketu Mehta<\/a> appears to be Sepia regular<\/a>, but just for those who can’t get enough, the Columbia Journalism Review<\/a> runs a highly entertaining interview with Mehta in next month’s issue.<\/p>\n\n

His interviewing technique:<\/p>\n\n

\nI was writing as I was speaking to these people. I\u00c2\u2019d bring out my laptop.. one of their hit men might say, \u00c2\u2018You know, we had a job to kill somebody for their laptop last week.\u00c2\u2019 And I\u00c2\u2019d say, \u00c2\u2018Yes, I\u00c2\u2019m aware of that” …. I noticed this subliminal thing started happening where as they spoke, I was literally typing. My fingers were dancing, and they would look at me and pick up these cues from when I\u00c2\u2019m typing or not. Now, in India the problem isn\u00c2\u2019t getting people to talk, it\u00c2\u2019s getting them to shut up or to stick to the topic.<\/b> And I didn\u00c2\u2019t have to tell them to stick to the topic, but..when they wandered off into a tangent I\u00c2\u2019d still be nodding, but my fingers weren\u00c2\u2019t dancing. And so they would, without my ever having to say anything to them, come back to the topic that I was interested in…<\/blockquote>\n\n

Writing as self-actualization:<\/p>\n\n

\nEach chapter was a journey into myself, into my weaknesses and my strengths. And I asked myself, Why was I attracted to these tough boys? And it\u00c2\u2019s because in school I was a weedy kid<\/b>, and I always looked up to the tough boys. The short and the smart sat at the front of the class….in the back were the people who had failed the grade and were taking it again or the really tall kids and we called them the LLBs \u00c2\u2014 the Lords of the Last Bench. And I always looked up to these guys. These were the ones who were good at cricket, could get the girls. And here they were \u00c2\u2014 they were grown up, and they were my protectors<\/b>.<\/blockquote>\n\n

Even a hitman’s got a conscience:<\/p>\n\n

\nI remember one of the hit men saying, \u00c2\u2018It used to happen that after I killed, the soul of the man I kill will come and sit on my chest. But then a Muslim gangster taught me to sleep in a fetal position with my back to the door, so the soul doesn\u00c2\u2019t have access to my chest so I can sleep peacefully<\/b>.\u00c2\u2019 Each one of them had different rationalizations, including the police.\n<\/blockquote>\n\n

Trying to define non-fiction:<\/p>\n\n

They knew I was writing a book…They knew about newspapers, they knew about movies; writing a book was \u00c2\u2014 they struggled to understand, some of them. They\u00c2\u2019d say, \u00c2\u2018Oh, does that mean it\u00c2\u2019s like a Ph.D. thesis?\u00c2\u2019 and I\u00c2\u2019d say, \u00c2\u2018Well, no, it\u00c2\u2019s a book,\u00c2\u2019 and they\u00c2\u2019d say, \u00c2\u2018Well, is it a novel?\u00c2\u2019 …And I\u00c2\u2019d just say, \u00c2\u2018No, it\u00c2\u2019s like a magazine, only the size of a book, and everything is true.\u00c2\u2019<\/b> They\u00c2\u2019d give up.<\/blockquote>\n\n

Indian politcs:<\/p>\n\n

\nI was really afraid of the Shiv Sena…Sanjay Nirupam used to be the Shiv Sena pit bull in the upper house. He got up in Parliament, and holding a copy of my book made a long speech about why outsiders should be prevented from entering Bombay, and started reading off statistics from my book to prove his point. And then the Congress Party MP gets up and says, \u00c2\u2018But the very next chapter of that same book has a direct attack on your party and its role in the riots,\u00c2\u2019 and he says, \u00c2\u2018I need not agree with everything that Mehta says.\u00c2\u2019 So a vigorous debate ensues and then this inimitable Indian statement \u00c2\u2014 \u00c2\u2018I will only agree with the facts that suit me.\u00c2\u2019 What are you going to say after that? <\/b><\/blockquote>\n\n

Also discussed: How Joni Mitchell inspired the book, why Naipaul is fascinating, and the dismal state of fiction publishing post 9\/11- “the dramatic value of the real seems to have overwhelmed our capacity to invent new things.” To name but a few. Great interview.<\/p>\n\n

Related posts: Too<\/a> many<\/a> to<\/a> count<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In case you missed it in hardcover, Maximum City will be out in paperback next Tuesday. I will spare you my opinion of the book since Suketu Mehta appears to be Sepia regular, but just for those who can’t get … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[8],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/sepiamutiny.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2269"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/sepiamutiny.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/sepiamutiny.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sepiamutiny.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sepiamutiny.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2269"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/sepiamutiny.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2269\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/sepiamutiny.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2269"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sepiamutiny.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2269"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sepiamutiny.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2269"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}