Students and teachers at James Ruse Agricultural High in north-west Sydney, the alma mater of Indian-Australian author Aravind Adiga, Wednesday celebrated his Man Booker Prize win.
"We are very proud of Adiga's wonderful achievement. It is amazing for someone so young at 34 to receive one of the highest awards in literature. It reinforces the view of our school as a wonderful place of learning," James Ruse principal Larissa Treskin told IANS.
Adiga, who was born in Chennai on Oct 23, 1974, joined James Ruse school in 1992 half way through Class 10 and topped the New South Wales (NSW) state in the Class 12 ancient history exam.
Teachers fondly remember him as a gifted all-rounder. His English teacher Judith Anderson, who has since retired, was always very proud of Adiga's writing skills.
Anderson, who has read the book, said she wasn't surprised by his success. She remembers him as a student who always stood out from the crowd and showed keen interest in world politics and cultures.
The 850-strength co-educational school is renowned for academic excellence and has been ranked first in the state academic results for the past 12 years.
The students, used to excellence and competing at international Olympiads in various fields, were overjoyed as the news of one of their ex-students making it big on the world stage of literature filtered through the classrooms.
"Adiga has become a great role model for our students. We would love to have him as a speaker at the school's golden jubilee celebrations next year in 2009," Treskin, who has been principal for the past two years, said.
Australian media has been quick to claim Adiga, who lives in Mumbai, as their very own as he has dual Indian and Australian citizenship.
His debut novel, "The White Tiger", was Wednesday out of stock at the Berkelouw Paddington bookstore on Sydney's Oxford Street, but at Borders' flagship store in Bondi Junction the remaining 12 copies were selling fast.
"We have had several enquiries about 'The White Tiger' since Adiga won the 2008 Man Booker Prize. We have sold three copies today and a shipment is on the way as we see the demand for the book increasing in the coming days," a Borders' spokesperson said.
Indo-Asian News Service
The ghosts of Gogol, Pushkin, Tolstoy and Dostoevsky will consort with modern day Russian writers for the next nine days at the 18th World Book Fair in New Delhi, rekindling the literary romance between India and Russia.
Over 200 top Russian publishers, authors and literary personalities are flying to New Delhi for the book fair starting Saturday. Russia presides over the show as guest of honour, marking the beginning of the yearlong celebration of Russian culture in India.
Sitting in the Petrovich Club, a stylish restaurant symbolising post-Soviet retro chic, Eduard Uspensky, a celebrity Russian writer and bestselling author of children's books, can barely conceal his excitement.
"I am really looking forward to going to India. Indians and Russians need to know their writers better," said the 70-year-old creator of memorable characters like Uncle Fedya and Crocodile Gena.
"It's a great idea to have Russia as a guest of honour at the book fair. Russian writers are popular in India, but they need to be discovered afresh," added Eugenia Vanina, head of Indian Studies at the Institute of Oriental Studies.
Vanina, a passionate admirer of Indian literature, especially Indian classics, recited a couplet from the Bhagvad Gita in chaste Sanskrit and then translated it into lilting Russian.
"But it should not end there," Vanina told a visiting IANS correspondent.
Yaroslav Kostyuk is also set to dazzle Indian bibliophiles with his miniature books measuring one centimetre to a few inches. "There is a certain artistry to putting together these microbooks. I will be talking about it in New Delhi," he said.
"We plan to take a large collection of Russian books, including reasonably priced translations of classics, to the Delhi book fair," said a manager at Biblio-Globus, the largest bookstore chain in Russia.
The publishing industry in Russia is booming with total revenues estimated to be anything between $4-8 billion.
Anatoly Lukyanenko, the creator of fantasy blockbuster Night Watch series of thrillers that revolutionised post-Soviet cinema, and Mikhail Veller, the bestselling author of page-turners like "The Legends of Nevsky Prospect" and "Everything about Life", will be some of the star attractions at the fair.
Playwright and novelist Yury Polyakov, a hot favourite with Russian television channels, is another contemporary Russian icon who is expected to grace the book fair.
Seminars, readings, quizzes, concerts of Russian folk instruments ensemble, Russian craftsmen, national costumes and painting competitions have been woven into a composite show that is set to rekindle interest in Russian art and literature in India.
Designed as part of the Year of Russia in India, which has a white stork against the background of the flags of the two countries as its logo, the Russia Hall will be a virtual window to Russian culture in all its myriad hues.
Besides books, there will be various sideshows with Russian cosmonauts expected to enthral Indians with their tales of space conquests. Rakesh Sharma, the first Indian cosmonaut to make space travel, will also be present at the fair.
It will be more than just spectacle. There will be a serious dialogue of ideas between Russian writers and contemporary Indian writers like U.R. Ananathamurthy, Githa Hariharan, Urvashi Butalia, Krishna Sobti and Vikram Chandra.
Children, many of whom have read delightful tales of Baba Yaga, the wicked witch, and the Firebird, have a treat in store for them. They can take part in Russian New Year's Tree Party with Father Frost and the Snow Maiden.
Around 1,300 publishers from 23 countries will be taking part in the mega book fair in New Delhi, which attracts millions of book lovers.
The Russian presence at the book fair will be reminiscent of the Soviet era when thousands of Russian books in cheap English and Hindi translations were freely available in India. The idea is to bridge the gap as the two countries are rediscovering each other anew, said Tatiana Shaumian of the School of Oriental Studies.
Indo-Asian News Service
Gone are the days when the time gap between writing a book and actually seeing it on the stands could be a couple of months to years, depending on the publisher. Now many authors are simply cutting short the process and self-publishing their book.
Debutant author Navin Pangti said since he was not eager to wait for long, he went ahead and published his book himself.
"Publishers these days have more than they can swallow. They get so many transcripts each day that it's only natural they take so long to give their opinion on a transcript," Pangti told IANS.
"Moreover, if it is a first time author, they don't take the transcript with much seriousness. I just wanted to avoid all this hassle. That's why I went right ahead and published my book 'Dhar Ke Us Paar'," Pangti told IANS.
Based in Uttarakhand, the book is a collage of pictures and 15 poems in Hindi. The language was another reason why Pangti felt that going to a publisher would mean a longer wait.
"It is a 48-page book. It was difficult editing and reviewing my own book. But I did it. After that I promoted it in all the popular networking sites like Orkut and Facebook," he said.
And the good news is that it worked. The book had many takers online and in roughly two to three months, Pangti sold over 100 copies.
In fact, poetry is a genre where self-publishing is happening quite frequently.
"My printing costs have been recovered and I have already broken even," Pangti smiled. Being a creative designer and photographer himself, he was also saved the headache of finding a different person to design the book.
For debutant author, Shubham Basu, the advantages of self-publishing were many.
"In self-publishing the advantage is that you can put forth your view without any screening. It's especially useful to those people who want to voice things that are important according to them but may not be of interest to everyone else," Basu said.
"You have the liberty to publish your virgin thoughts."
While the advantages of self-publishing are many, it has its share of shortcomings as well.
Karthika V.K., publisher and chief editor of Harper Collins, said: "The method of promoting a book online, placing orders and delivering is still at a nascent stage in India simply because here the reach of the internet is still not very wide."
Basu agreed.
"One might have to buy his way through the distribution network which can turn out to be pretty expensive because book stores will be sceptical to take up self-published books and distribute it.
"This is because when one goes through a known publisher, there is a certain amount credibility about the material," he said.
Also, in self-publishing, one needs to take care of the number of books being printed.
Shanti Das, another self-publisher, said she had to take care that not too many copies were printed as they might have ultimately got stacked away in a store room nor so little that they needed to be printed again and again.
"Thankfully, I got just the right amount of books printed - 200. My book of poems, which I marketed online, sold off that many copies," she said.
Thus, writers in India, albeit slowly, are now beginning to see the advantages of self-publishing their work, much like their Western counterparts.
"Self-publishing is a common thing in the US and Canada where people don't mind taking risks unlike here where we tend to tread only those paths which have been tried and tested before," Basu said.
"It will take some time, but it will catch up in India," Basu said.
Indo-Asian News Service