Wiscon hosts an event called The Gathering at the start of their convention. It’s kind of a mish-mash of activities to welcome folks to the convention before the main festivities begin. This year I saw a zine table, a couple of tarot readers, a palm reader, a group performing shapenote singing (not quite sure what defines that, but they sounded great), a clothing swap (mostly women’s clothing so not of much use to me, but I did get a book bag there which was oh so useful), and more. One table presented a plethora of ARCs and proofs for conventioneers as a fundraiser for Wiscon (or maybe the Tiptree Award, I forget which). One buck per ARC. I have no idea who donated the ARCs. Most appeared to be fantasy, with a chunks of science fiction, paranormal fantasy, and young adult titles as well. And there I saw Delhi Noir.

At the beginning of this year, I’d never heard of Akashic Books, publisher of Delhi Noir. But in one of my periodic internet searches for books by authors I like, I saw that Curt Colbert would be the editor for a forthcoming book of noir short stories set in Seattle. I loved Colbert’s Jake Rossiter series put out by the much missed Uglytown imprint, and keep hoping (and searching) for a fourth installment from some other source. Anyhoo, poking around I’ve seen that Seattle Noir (just released) is actually part of a decently large series put out by Akashic Books. When I saw the Delhi Noir A.R.C. I had to grab it.

Why did I need it? Well, partially to find out what sort of quality I might expect before I plunked down real money for the Seattle edition. And secondly I’ve been to Delhi and know a little bit about the city (just enough to be dangerous though). If ever there are cities that are ground for noir-ish crime fiction, India has them, and Delhi is prime in that set. Parts are seedy, dirty, and dark. They exist in close proximity to fresh, upscale malls and developments. Large numbers of people are on the take. Kickbacks, while by no means universal, are so common as to be a way of life. Small rebel groups operate within 100 miles of the city. Bandits and highway robbers with one name and (probably undeserved) Robin Hood reputations operate nearby as well. In many ways it’s like America in the early 1900s. That’s mulch for noir. I figured there was a good chance I’d enjoy this book.

I’m happy to report this my expectations have been met. I’ve only read a small handful of crime fiction anthologies (so take this for what that’s worth), but Delhi Noir is easily the best one I’ve ever cracked open. None of the stories blew me away, but Sawhney’s selections consistently turn out good. I liked every single story in the book. Every single one. Delhi did indeed turn out to be good setting for noir.

I wish I lived near enough to New York City to attend one of the upcoming readings/launch parties for this.

Yesterday Man by Omair Ahmad

Suhasini Das is a private investigator in Delhi, formerly partnered with Jaidev Triloki. Triloki has disappeared, and one of his clients comes to Suhasini to finish the job. Arjun Singh wants to find a man he, scared out of his mind at the time, helped to kill another man. He’s living his life backwards, so to speak, to reach that point in time and redeem himself. It’s more a traditional crime fiction story than an noir story filled with atmosphere, but it does have a noirish ending.

How I Lost My Clothes by Radhika Jha

Fancy schmancy upper class consultant type barely maintains his life as he does lots of drugs on the side. So much an addict that he ends up doing drugs with people under the bridge, he wakes up after a particularly bad week missing deadlines, far from home, having his clothes stolen by his homeless drug buddies. Wasn’t even left his underwear. He has to get himself home, or somewhere safe at least, and get himself something to wear. I enjoyed the story, but it was the only story in the collection that didn’t seem to have the feeling of threat, of double-cross, of the possibility of bad things happening. So it stood out in a book of noir as feeling not noir. Still good.

Last In, First Out by Irwin Allan Sealy

Baba Ganoush drives an auto-rickshaw long hours to get ahead. Sometimes he works late into the night. Sometimes he sees the worst of things. Sometimes he does something about it. A little vigilante justice sometimes hits the spot!

Parking by Ruchir Joshi

It’s common for public servants in India to want a little cash to do their jobs, or do a little bit extra of their jobs. Neighbors fight over a parking spot that is technically public. One set of neighbors has a couple of friendly (to them) parking enforcement officers put the pressure on the girlfriend of the other neighbor. No heavy threat this time, just ordinary justice for hire.

Hissing Cobras by Nalinaksha Bhattacharya

Inspector Raghav Bakshi investigates the supposedly accidental death of Mukta Agarwal’s mother in law. Though living together, Mukta and Kamla didn’t get along, and Bakshi is out to prove Mukta’s responsibility for the crime. Moreover, he’s gonna collect payment from Mukta to make the hissing cobras (pieces of evidence) disappear. He is not a nice guy! I could see where this story was going, but I thoroughly enjoyed it getting there.

The Railway Aunty by Mohan Sikka

A shy young virgin is initiated into the worldly ways of sex by an older friend of his guardian aunt when he stops by to pick up a box of apples. He goes back for more, and more, and then she starts pimping him out to other women, for money. Perhaps not even remotely realistic at all, it’s bow-chicka-bow-bow fun with a dark edge! One of the few stories in the collection where the woman isn’t the one getting taken advantage of in the worst way.

Hostel by Siddharth Chowdhury

Zorawar Singh is the landlord of a hostel filled with miscreants. After they protect him one day from a group of sword-wielding men who come to the hostel to avenge a husband’s honor, a newer miscreant learns the story of how Zorawar came to own and run the hostel. My least favorite in the anthology, but still not bad.

Small Fry by Meera Nair

A street urchin works selling tea at the bus terminal in Selhi, and assists a tout who sells unlicensed bus tickets. He gets involved a bit more than usual when a gorgeous young woman, a Bollywood level beauty, needs tickets fast out of town. The tout and he have to make a run for it. Kind of cold-blooded, but I liked him.

Fit of Rage by Palash Krishna Mehrotra

The protagonist lives in Delhi, hiding out from a crime he committed in a fit of rage in Mumbai. He rents a room upstairs from his landlord Mrs. Bindra, but he hangs out with the servants, who harbor a little resentment of their own. Another very cold-blooded story. Another good one.

Just Another Death by Hartosh Singh Bal

After a servant dies in suspicious circumstances, a new journalist investigates but is persuaded to drop the case. Decades later after he has become a revered newsman he decides to poke into the case that started him off and see if his hunch had been right. Yet another very cold-blooded story. Still another good one.

Gautam Under a Tree by Hirsh Sawhney

Several years prior to the story, Gautam worked with a foreign documentary maker, Lauri Zeller, to film a tribal group that was fighting corruption and capitalism. Though lovers, they had a falling out when Zeller wanted to make the documentary about how art could save the tribal members and several key leaders of the group were murdered including a man Gautam considered a friend. Now he has a chance to write an expose on how an industrialist orchestrated the murder. The story is told from the point of view of Gautam’s girlfriend. I do wonder which foreign documentarian Sawhney is taking a shot at here. Anyway, Gautam is presented with a pretty awful choice.

The Scam by Tabish Khair

A couple of somewhat gullible celebrity types convince a cynical journalist to investigate a caste atrocity in Bihar. The story the low-caste mother and child tell is of being forced off their land by another caste. The journalist doesn’t believe because he caught the child running a turd scam, where a kid throws birdshit on your shoes and then offers to polish them for a fee (something the India guidebooks warn visitors about). Also, if the atrocity were real, in his mind, a politician would already be milking it for publicity. A tale of people changing their minds, but not always for the better.

The Walls of Delhi by Uday Prakash (Prakash’ English language blog, Hindi language blog)

This is the only entry in the book not originally written in English, and it is perhaps my favorite. One of India’s poor, who squats in a ruined castle with his family, works as a janitor cleaning government buildings. Until he finds a cache of millions hidden in a building he cleans. He steals some to finance a lavish lifestyle, even taking on a mistress. Will greed take him too far? Who really owns the money? Loved this.

Cull by Manjula Padmanabhan

And this story actually has a connection to Wiscon! I’d been wondering why the hell a mystery anthology would find its way to a science fiction convention. The last story is a Philip K. Dick kind of near-future S.F. noir. The ruling class decides to do something about an uncontrolled group of the underclass living in a 2,000 acre garbage dump on the northern outskirts of future Delhi, where historical buildings have been moved to underground parks to make way for rigid rectangular city blocks. It’s not particularly original, other than the Delhi setting. Still, it does have a different cultural vibe than these stories usually have.

One word of warning about the collection: violence against women dominates most of the stories. I’m not in a position to know whether that’s representative of Indian culture today or if it’s an editorial bias. It’s not presented in a positive light. Pretty much every story has men taking advantage of men. By my quick count, eight have men taking advantage of women, all violently or sexually. Two have women taking advantage of men, one sexually and one violently. Be that it might reflect reality, some people won’t enjoy the level of violence against women. If you get squicked when that sort of thing predominates, don’t read this.

Title: Delhi Noir
Editor: Hirsh Sawhney
Cover creator: Madhu Kapparath (photographer) / Jon Resh (designer)
Series: Akashic Books Noir Series
Imprint / publisher: Akashic Books
Format: Advanced readers copy
Length: 280 p.
Publication date: August 2009
ISBN-13: 978-1-933354-78-1

I really like this cookbook. It’s organized well. Most of the recipes can be made by someone not horrendously familiar with Indian cooking. It doesn’t include pictures; this is not food porn. Just lots and lots of recipes.

Well, there’s a bit more than recipes. There’s explanation of the Indian terms. An explanation of Indian spices. An explanation of basic Indian cooking techniques. And Mrs. Batra has a short introduction to each recipe.

But really, it’s all about the recipes.

By the way, expect more cookbooks to show up, as well as more frequent edits to existing entries to add notes on individual recipes. I vowed that I would not cook from a box when I moved into my new place earlier this month, and so far I’ve stuck to this. Go me!

Creamy Tomato Soup – Tamatar ka Soop (p. 171)

This was tasty, but nothing particularly amazing. The author noted, if you prefer a chunky soup, do not strain. I didn’t. I think I should have strained or used a blender on the soup. Or used more yogurt than called for. It wasn’t very creamy.

Banana Dumplings – Modak (p. 617)

My friend Deirdre threw herself a birthday party this year, and the theme was finger food. Everyone was to bring finger food. And no one was to feed themselves; you had to feed other guests. She was afraid she would get 22 containers of chocolate covered strawberries. Recognizing the danger myself, I picked out this recipe because it looked fairly simple. It was. And it was tasty. Make a paste of bananas, flour, and sugar, then deep dry globs in peanut oil. Easy peasy and quite the hit. Though the favorite there was a sweet dill custard. I never woulda thought of putting dill with sweet, but it worked. But this was good too, if I do say so myself.

Spicy Chicken Pilaf – Murgh Pullao (p. 555)

Basically a lot of spices, onion, tomato, chicken and rice. Very very tasty. Yogurt is an ingredient, and I would also make sure to have some extra to mix in or on the resulting dish, cause this is fairly hot. I figured this one would be great for leftovers. When cooking for one, it better be something that you can eat a few times.

Title: 1,000 Indian recipes
Author: Neelam Batra
Imprint / publisher: Wiley
Format: Hardcover
Length: 690 p.
Publication date: 2002
ISBN-10: 0-7645-1972-7
Subject: Cookery, Indic
LC classification: TX724.5I4 B3597 2002

John Irving is one of those American novelists that I’ve always been afraid to read. Joseph Heller, Philip Roth, John Updike, John Irving. I knew I’d read through a whole book and not get it. Mostly this impression comes from seeing people who read these novelists. Well, now I’ve read one.

I have to say, there’s something about the novel that I just don’t get. It’s a good story, albeit on the long side. But it feels like there is some purpose for which Irving wrote the story, other than it being a good story. And I’ve missed it.

The overwhelming thing that kept hitting me while reading the book is that it’s like watching Lost. Through the first 400 pages or so of the books I think only a little over a day passed in time. The bulk of the story through that point is told through reminiscing to points in time past, mostly to a period about 25 years prior to the beginning of the book. I found that a trifle annoying.

The main character is Dr. Farrokh Daruwalla, a Parsi Indian who doesn’t really feel at home in India, or anywhere for that matter. He returns to India periodically to run a charity hospital, and also to write screenplays for bad Indian crime drama about the policeman Inspector Dhar. As a doctor for a movie filmed in Bombay some 25 years ago, he got the film bug and began writing the screenplays. Not so coincidentally, the starlet of the film became pregnant while filming and had twins. Secretly. She returned to America with one of them, entrapped the drunken screenwriter of the film whom she believed had fathered the child into marrying her, and began an unhappy and fruitless Hollywood career. Meanwhile, Farrokh’s brother Jamshed raised the other twin in Austria. By the time of the beginning of the story the second twin John D. was returning to India a few times a year to star as Inspector Dhar for his uncle Dr. Daruwalla.

Do you follow that? The thing is, Inspector Dhar (as he is mostly referred to in the book) isn’t really Indian though he sort of passes for one. His movies are hated. That’s why they are successful. Everyone goes to see them so they can talk about what a despicable anti-hero Dhar is. Consequently the actor Dhar has to be pretty careful not to get assaulted by the various people the movies offend.

All this is thrown in to disarray when the first twin, Martin Mills, decides to visit India. He doesn’t know he has a twin. He’s a confused apprentice Jesuit. He does get assaulted and assumes it is God testing him.

And the other wrinkle to be thrown in to this is the appearance of a serial killer who murders prostitutes and draws elephants on their stomachs after he kills them. One of the reasons why everyone is mad at Dhar is that the latest Inspector Dhar movie features a serial killer who draws elephants on the bellies of his victims. The public assumes that a copycat has taken the gimmick and run with it, but they blame Dhar for giving him the idea.

Except that Daruwalla isn’t really that imaginative of a writer. Twenty years ago he was a doctor called to a scene where two bodies were found with elephants drawn on the stomachs. He incorporated the device into a movie much later. And, unbeknownst to any of them at the beginning of the book, the killer isn’t really a copycat, but actually the original killer. It’s been his signature as he’s killed throughout the years. But some of the killings happened in other countries, and the ones that occurred in India weren’t particularly well-publicized because of India’s system and culture.

Oh, and the circus fits into all of this when Daruwalla’s driver attempts to rescue children from the streets by getting them employed as performers in the circus, where he met Daruwalla years before when he was a circus clown.

Okay, got all the sub-plots in order? Yeah, there’s a lot of them.

Even if tedious sometimes, I mostly enjoyed watching Daruwalla’s interactions with the other characters. He’s very passive, but also fairly judgmental. I suppose this is part of why he doesn’t feel like he belongs to India. There’s a scene at the end in Toronto (a couple of scenes actually) where Daruwalla takes a much more forceful role, for want of a better term. Forceful isn’t quite the right word, as he is quite capable of vehemently arguing in many places in the book. But in the scenes at the end he shocked me by doing something that was reactive. Just conversational things. I don’t know if that was intentional or not, but it seemed out of character even compared to other things in the same chapter.

I also liked the concept of a film property that is popular precisely because everyone hates it. Something like Jean Claude Van Damme but more popular. I want to see the Inspector Dhar movies now.

Anyway, it seems I don’t really have much to say after all. The book is not for the faint of heart. There are enough problems with the writing that it can be a bit difficult to read, and it is overly long. But it has great characters and decent intertwined plots.

Title: A son of the circus
Author: John Irving
Imprint / publisher: Random House
Publication Date: 1994
Format: Hardcover
Length: 633 p.
ISBN-10: 0-679-43496-8
Subject: India — Fiction
LC Classification: PS3559.R8 S64 1994

In 2004, Born into Brothels won a well-deserved the Best Documentary (feature) Oscar®. The movie is slice of life of Zana Briski working with children in Kolkata’s red light district Sonaguchi. Briski started a class teaching the children photography. By the time I watched the movie though, I only vaguely remembered this fact, so when the film opened with a number of stunning photographs, I was amazed and wondering who took them. Minutes later it was clear that these young children (I believe around 10 or 11 years old) took them. Taking photographs and getting support for taking photographs obviously had a pretty profound effect on the kids. More so than the tragedy of the week parts which focused on their lives, this affected me. The kids had talent and showcasing that made them better people.

After her three year workshop was over in 2003, Briski founded the non-profit Kids with Cameras to start similar workshops in multiple countries, capitalizing on the success of the movie to kick-start the group. And that brings me to the book.

An initial book was titled Born into Brothels: Photographs by the Children of Calcutta and is still available on Amazon and in other bookstores. Kids With Cameras is self-published by the organization and is an updated, longer version of the earlier work. To purchase it, you’ll need to go to the Kids With Cameras web site. Cost is fairly pricy, $65 plus shipping ($12 to Seattle), but the money is used to fund the kids’ educations, and it’s not much more expensive than other photography books.

Click on the picture to purchase a print.

Anyway, the book features 223 pages of photographs, almost all by the kids. A few are by Zana Briski and Ross Kaufman (who filmed the documentary). All nine children features in the movie are featured in the book. Avijit, who had the most skill, gets the largest number of pages. And some of the photographs are truly stunning. My favorite picture Girl On A Roof by Sujitra is in the book (and a smaller version is below the paragraph). It was the cover photograph for the 2003 Amnesty International Calendar. A shot that Avijit took on the beach (Bucket), pouring sand and water out of a bucket in the foreground with people running on the beach in the background is also included. In the film, Avijit studiously composed this shot. Other pictures are book size snapshots, particularly the photos of animals at the zoo. But by and large Briski has picked some wonderful photos.

Click on the picture to purchase a print.

If anyone on your holiday gift list is a liberal lefty save the children kind of person, this is a great gift for them.

Title: Kids with cameras
Editor: Zana Briski
Imprint / publisher: Kids With Cameras
Format: Hardcover
Length: 224 p.
ISBN-10: ISBN 0-9772957-0-2
Subject: Children of prostitutes — India — Calcutta
Subject: Children of prostitutes — India — Calcutta — Pictorial works
Subject: Children — India — Calcutta — Social conditions

The Royal Palaces of India is a glorified coffee table book on the subject. Though better. A lot of history and anthropology of Indian culture is included, though mostly about the various rulers of India since 1300. And of course, they only cover things connected to the palaces, not other history or culture. Still, learning the layout and influences was cool. And the pictures are gorgeous. A number of the ones featured are on my itinerary to India in November. Unfortunately, I don’t get to keep the book; it was on loan from a co-worker. Otherwise I would probably have gone back to it again and again prior to my India trip.

Title: The royal palaces of India
Author: George Michell
Photographer: Antonio Martinelli
Publisher: Thames & Hudson
Length: 232 p.
ISBN-10: 0-500-27964-0
Subject: Palaces — India
Subject: Architecture — India
Subject: Historic buildings — India
Subject: India — Kings and rulers — Homes and haunts
LC classification: NA1501 .M54 1994

I bought three travel guides for my trip to India last year. Two were Lonely Planet books, and then there was this one. Published by DK as part of their Eyewitness Travel Guides series, the cover promises The Guides That Show You What Others Only Tell You. In other words, there’s a lot more pictures here, and they are in color. Sadly, reality never really lives up to the pretty pictures you can find in travel guides. They have their pick of shots, and take the ones that show everything in their best light. This isn’t to say that India isn’t beautiful, but no place looks as good as it does in pictures all the time. That being said, this is a great book for getting you excited about travelling to the Golden Triangle. And if you are good at setting your expectations despite a good sell job, this books points out where you can find some really beautiful things.

What it doesn’t do is point out any of the pitfalls, and there are many in India. Oh, it tells you to negotiate your fare up front with the auto-rickshaws, but doesn’t point out which attractions you really want to see, and which ones really aren’t all that. For instance, the guide describes the Samode palace in glowing terms. But after a two hour drive, Samode palace is barely bigger than my apartment building and there are only a couple of spots worth viewing now that most of the place has been turned into a hotel. I enjoyed the experience, but didn’t come away with the sense of awe this guide imparts.

About the only thing I really like about the guide is that for major attractions it contains a 3-D cut away view of the location rather than just a flat map. On top of that the points of interest within the attraction are helpfully located. I got a better feel for places with that than I did with regular outline maps found in other guides such as Lonely Planet.

In the end, I left this book at home when I boarded the plane. I figured I would take my own pretty pictures and I required more practical advice on the road.

Authors: Anuradha Chaturvedi, Dharmendar Kanwar, Ranjana Sengupta
Title: Delhi Agra & Jaipur
Publisher: DK
Series: Eyewitness Travel Guides
Length: 320 p.
ISBN-10: 0-7894-9717-4
Subject: Delhi (India) — Guidebooks
Subject: Agra (India) — Guidebooks
Subject: Jaipur (India) — Guidebooks
LC classification: DS486.D3 D365 2003