looks at his profession
| By Kulamarva Balakrishna Vienna,Saturday, February 16,2008: Last week I had an occasion to comment on the Vinod Mehta´s Outlook assessment of Indian Publishing farts.Now I have in front of me an insider, Sardarji Khushwant Singh´s own self evaluation.I quote from Hindustan Times his Malice column, that speaks all. Years ago when his book on Delhi was released his publishers invited him to Vienna for book promotion.Just as I had given to friend Maqbool Fida Hussain, Tomy Ungerer´s =Kamasutra of Frogs=, I thought of giving him a souvenir that he might like after all he is the father of my friend Rahul Singh. I bought a book of one thousand naked beauties.Then it occurred to me he has not so much time to look all those pages of nakedness.It was then I decided the porno parliamentarian of taly of Hungarian origin, Ciceleona.I presented him a collection of her exotic photos in all their splendour. Sardarji is now receding.Separated from Maneka after a legal battle of course, he is basking on health clubs. I remember former MIG pilot Smike Gupta telling me, how he saved the sardarji´s life following the assassination of Indira Gandhi.The criminal politicians of New Delhi were set on garlanding Sardarji with a torched cycle tyre . As a security officer of a near by bank, Mr.Gupta noticed the commotion and at once pulled out his revolver. The attacking cowards took to the heels and the Sardarji was saved for all of us. In his early days the Sardarji was drubbed well by Krishna Menon.He also enjoyed attacking the unconventional leftist theosophist intellectual,who was an adviser of Nehru. Then later, the Sardarji became a name dropper revealing who paid him how much for an article to show he was the highest paid Indian in the field.Sorry for him he eyed for the job of The Times of India´s editorship. Thanks to the late Sham Lal, it was prevented. But he remain a popular Golpitha writer as much as his successor as the editor of The Illustrated Weekly of India, M.V.Kamath is the unofficial spokesman of Walt Disney´s Donald Duck Hinduism.I wish him long life, more than a hundred years, he is closing in but there is yet one more decade for the target,then may be some bonus for his walking habits.The following are his own words. Qu0te: | ||||||
with Kiran Nagarkar, the leading Marathi
writer whose novel Cuckold, written in English,
I regard as the best by an Indian, gave me
much food for thought. I also have in mind
Sheela Reddy’s article in Outlook mentioning
the huge advance royalties now being paid to
new writers by some of India’s leading publishing
houses like Penguin, Viking, Harper Collins, Rupa
and Roli Books. They run up to Rs 50 lakh before
a word of projected novel has been written.
They are higher than advance royalties offered
to authors in America or England or in any other
European country. And they are offered only for
works in English, not for written in our national
language Hindi or regional languages.It is clear
that English reigns supreme in India. In the Book
Fair over two-thirds of the stalls were taken by
English; Hindi and Urdu were a poor second and
third; other languages were barely noticeable.
beyond recognition.The pioneers of Indians writing
in English — Mulk Raj Anand, R.K. Narayan and
Raja Rao either had patrons who helped them
find publishers or organisations which sponsored
their works. They made some noise in literary
circles but not much money. The institution of
literary agents was little known. The only one I
heard of was Curtis Brown. It was said that if it
took up your work, they would find you a good
publisher and take their cut on royalties due to
you. I for one never went through a literary agent
-nor had problems finding a good publisher. I was
happy with the 8-10 per cent they gave me on
sales of my books. Today a literary agent has
become a powerful factor in publishing: the best
of writers use them because it is they who get
publishing houses to cough up huge sums as
advance royalties. The whole business resembles
a whore-house. Publishers can be compared
to brothel keepers,literary agents to
bharooahs (pimps)who find eligible
girls and fix rates of payment; writers
can be likened to women in the profession.
New comers are virgins (naya maal)
who draw the biggest fees for being
deflowered.
Publishing houses package their goods with saleable
titles, beautifully drawn jackets with a line or two
by a celebrity author vouching for the excellence
of its contents. It has become a racket. You can see
the same kind of set up in Kolkata’s Sonagachi,
Mumbai’s Kamatipura and Hyderabad’s Mahboob
ki Mehendi. =unquote=(end)
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