Married But Available and The Hindu

This year I had received a Valentine’s Day gift. Only I did not know I had got a gift. My second novel Married But Available had hit the bestsellers list of The Hindu newspaper – a leading daily newspaper in English in India. According to the Indian Readership Survey (IRS) 2008 The Hindu is the third most-widely read English newspaper in India (after Times of India and Hindustan Times) with a readership of 5.2 million. I have often wondered if commercial fiction and literary fiction should share a common bestseller list. Is that fair? Then again, can bestseller lists be made for different genres? Probably not. If so, we are back to where we started – lists are made across genres. So here are the bestsellers in fiction from the Hindu newspaper’s Vishakhapatnam edition dated 14 Feb 2009 (need I add that I love the people of Vizag for their great literary choice … see proof below. Read more

Who Wants a Piece of SlumdogM

The euphoria of Oscars in India is still there as a lingering hangover. Everyone is basking in reflected glory – even me. I had predicted two Oscars for AR Rahman in my review of Slumdog Millionaire (see comment dated 8th Feb 09). So there… but the one that takes the cake is the ruling party in India taking credit for the Oscars. I kind of partly support their claim to fame. They are certainly responsible for our slums and the millionaire politicians. Read more

The List That Matters

The Asian Age runs a list of best sellers for the week. For two weeks now the Booker award winning novel The White Tiger has been topping the list. The others that follow have been pretty consistent too. Brisinger has been at the silver medal winning spot and Meenakshi Madhavan Reddy who writes the immensely popular blog called The Compulsive Confessor is holding forth at spot number three while I am holding fourth (could never resist a cheap pun!) … I missed even the bronze. But I don’t crib. I am made of a different “metal” Read more

Married But Available in Best Seller Lists

Rashmi Bansal was the first one to write about my first novel Mediocre But Arrogant. The article called A Novel Pastime appeared in the June 2005 issue of BusinessWorld magazine (read the article here) and of course it appeared on Rashmi’s blog at the same time. She had profiled this new author called Chetan Bhagat who had stirred up major interest with his first novel called Five Point Someone. Read more

The Hindu’s List of Bestsellers

Sometimes one stumbles across an old review or list while surfing. Here’s what I saw from The Hindu newspaper. This is really 27th August 2005. So pretty much just after the launch of the book.

Fiction

The Lunatic from Multan: Rajeev Jacob: Rs. 295

Set in the early nineteen eighties, this is the story of one man’s battle against extreme odds.

Sadak Chhaap: Meher Pestonji: Rs. 250

Horrific and heart breaking, the book evokes the brutal existence of street children.

Mediocre But Arrogant: Abhijit Bhaduri: Rs. 195

A story that tells a tale of love and life in a business school.

Home and the World: Rabindranath Tagore: Rs. 200

Set against the backdrop of the partition of Bengal, this is a translation of Tagore’s great novel .

Hacks and Headlines: A Novel: Rashme Sehgal: Rs. 295

Set in the late 1990’s, the novel weaves several strands of different stories.

Non-Fiction

The Other Side of Belief: Interpreting U.G. Krishnamurti: Rs. 350

This book is a candid and refreshing chronicle of UG’s life and evolution of his radical outlook and ideas.

Iraq War and the Future World Order: (Ed.) G. Gopa Kumar: Rs. 695

The essays in this volume address ground-realities of the war in Iraq and its global effect.

Kerala Economy: Trajectories Challenges and Implications: (Ed.) D. Rajasenan & Genrad de Groot: Rs. 485

An exhaustive analysis of the Kerala economy, consisting of articles by eminent economists.

Source: Modern Book Centre, DC Books

© Copyright 2000 – 2006 The Hindu

Next Page »