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.

Bestsellers : Fiction

1. Twilight by Stephenie Meyer – Atom Rs. 299

2. Slumdog Millionaire by Vikas Swarup – Black Swan Rs. 268

3. The Associate by John Grisham – Arrow Rs. 229

4. Married but Available by Abhijit Bhaduri – Harper Rs. 195

5. The Diary Of A Social Butterfly by Moni Mohsin – Random House Rs. 195

6. In Other Rooms, Other Wonders by Daniyal Mueenuddin- Random House Rs. 395

7. The Murder Exchange by Simon Kernick – Corgi Rs. 262

8. Amazing Grace by Danielle Steel – Corgi Rs. 229

9. Lady Killer by Lisa Scottoline – Harper Rs. 282

10. Opium Clerk by Kunal Basu – HarperCollins India Rs. 295

The Hindu reviewed my novel Married But Available in todays literary supplement. I get a little worried about the book being featured in a literary review. I think there is a thin dividing line between literary fiction and commercial fiction. I believe Married But Available and the first novel Mediocre But Arrogant are both mass market fiction with no literary pretensions or capabilities. Here is the review by Sheila Kumar in The Hindu newspaper of 4th Oct 2009:

“Abhijit Bhaduri follows up his first novel Mediocre But Arrogant with this ‘MBA’ and warns that another MBA (Middle-Aged But Active) may yet be in the offing. Chetan Bhagat opened some kind of floodgates and this genre (IIT lit? MBA lit?) is what the waters are bringing in.

Plain language

Bhaduri gets off to a sluggish, even disjointed start, then gets into his groove gradually. His groove is his book’s groove, of course, and it’s a story of a management grad, his wine, women, song and career, not necessarily in that order. Bhaduri uses plain, unvarnished, unpretentious if unstylised language, communicating straight to the reader and infuses his tale with a strong autobiographical tone. While the book, the story, could have done with some amount of literary flourish, this, too, is literature, as the aforementioned Chetan B has shown us.

And so, Bhaduri’s hero, Abbey passes out of IIM, Jamshedpur, gets into Balwanpur Industries, works at the township, chafes at the fishbowl existence he has to live there out of necessity, marries, gets estranged from, romances a woman or two, and slowly climbs up the corporate ladder. There is no discernible line of wit in the book; at best it is a collection of puerile jokes; the IIM gang comprises the usual suspects; the career climb is predictable, the women all coalesce into one another, come and go without leaving much impact. So what is the leavening factor in this ‘MBA’, a tenuous title at best? It’s lessons learned on the job which Abbey/Bhaduri imparts in a chatty tone that loses no relevance in the telling.

Human Resource/Human Capital Practice/Personnel Management, whatever the term du jour is, it’s a fast moving track, creative and exciting, a track where you think as you run. To that extent, Bhaduri’s case histories with their solutions, make for interesting reading. The way Abbey handles the enforced VRS scheme initiated by the MNC that takes over Balwanpur Industries, is both informative and entertaining.

Abrupt end

And then, at the end of the book, Bhaduri seems to revert to type… he ends as he begins, i.e., with a jerky conclusion, a needless death and an abrupt dropping of curtain. Who knows, maybe he’ll rectify this in his third MBA. Stranger things have been known to happen.”

View a hi-resolution image of the cover of Married But Available designed by Shuka Jain

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.

 The book (originally published as Q&A) by Vikas Swarup has now been renamed as Slumdog Millionaire and the sales are shooting up. Did Vikas feel that he missed the Oscars by a whisker when Simon Beaufoy got it for adapting his book… I wonder.

Slumdog Millionaire sits squarely in all best seller lists.

The Deccan Chronicle in its Sunday 22 Feb 09 listing of top books has

1. The White Tiger – Aravind Adiga

2. The Associate – John Grisham

3. Slumdog M – Vikas Swarup

4. Married But Available

The Hindu dated 14 Feb 09 lists the top 5 fiction books as

1. Twilight by Stephenie Meyer – Atom Rs. 299

2. Slumdog Millionaire by Vikas Swarup – Black Swan Rs. 268

3. The Associate by John Grisham – Arrow Rs. 229

4. Married but Available by Abhijit Bhaduri – Harper Rs. 195

5. The Diary Of A Social Butterfly by Moni Mohsin – Random House Rs. 195

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”

I was just beginning to wonder if it was the same list that they ran on the week of 7th Dec 08 that got reprinted. A bit like spot the difference between the two pictures. But no, there is the Non Fiction section to look at to see that another blogger is leading at No 1 with Stay Hungry Stay Foolish ahead of Thomas Friedman, Barack Obama and Randy Pausch.

Best seller lists are lists. If you have not heard Randy Pausch, the Prof from Carnegie Mellon Univ, US talk about the list he made as a kid, then you have to listen to this one. Carnegie Mellon Univ posted the full 76 minute version of The Last Lecture it on youtube.com. The man made a list of things to do in his childhood and talks about how many of them he has met. Do you have a list like that? I had written about the film Dasvidaniya recently which has a list making protagonist. Randy Pausch inspires you to make a list of your own.

If you had one last lecture to give, what would you say? The video that brings tears to my eyes and inspires every time I watch it. Don’t miss it.

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. The article had talked about MBAs moonlighting as novelists. Swati Kaushal had written Piece of Cake categorized as chick lit and Deeptha Khanna’s teen lit called The Year I Turned 16.

Three years later Rashmi’s blog Youthcurry was the first to say, “Incidentally I saw ‘Married but Available’ at no 5 among best selling fiction books at Crossword in Bandra. Lagta hai acchi bik rahi hai! ” and sent me this photo. Rashmi found stuff about layoffs in Married But Available to be interesting.  “The book also touches upon what is a red hot issue today – layoffs for workers. Whether in a factory or in a white collar office the concerns remain the same. It is NEVER easy. The way Abbey deals with it he manages a win-win situation.” Her overall take – “Overall, I think this is a good book for anyone who:
* is a young manager and esp those planning a career in HR. Context may change but issues remain the same.
* enjoys reading yuppie-lit ie books about People Like Us.
* looking for a quick breezy read – nothing too deep.”

Gautam Ghosh sent me photo of the book being at No 4 on the Crossword at City Select Mall, Saket, New Delhi.

Another list by the Indo Asian News Service put the book among the top ten fiction books, but at No 8. Hey but look at the company! 

Sometimes trawling through the web can throw up interesting sightings. Here is what a reader from sent me as a link. The popular Radio Station in the UAE is Hit 96.7. The leading Malayalam FM station in the UAE, Hit 96.7 was launched in 2004 to cater to the largest expatriate community in the Gulf – the Malayalees. Their book review section features Married But Available. They give it a “A strong recommendation”.  I suspect they saw that I too was Radio Jockey in my previous life and hence the RJ Brotherhood must have made them go soft on me . Hey I am not complaining! Whatever works. 

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

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