I received those wonderful books you had sent to me via Amazon yesterday, and have begun reading them both right away - both are very fascinating as they deal with the subject that I have been agonizing over - India - starting from the time I picked up that dangerous book (Suketu Mehta's 'Maximum City'), and my relationship to it and vice versa.

Also Salman Rushdie's words from one of his lectures here were echoing in my head. 'Hercalitus' I think was the title of this lecture - where he began with this quote 'A man's character is his destiny', and then went on trace the genesis of his novel 'Midnight Children' to the realization that he was fundamentally Indian, and that is the most natural arena for his fictional constructions. So he began with the year of his birth, 1947.

This also meant that I was recently looking at a few subjects more closely to write about, at some point of time soon, tied up with India - the first one, and older, being the historical novel that seeks to explore cross currents and cross fertilizations between Persia and India, especially in the arts. Hindustani classical music was the entry point for this, but a few nights ago reading a couple of travelouges on Iran, I found the fascinating fact that the architect of Taj Mahal is claimed to be from Shiraz (also the grape from which that Australian wine we find in the grocery shelves comes from) in Iran. This has opened up fictional possibilites in my head and will now keep me up for a few years.

The second was triggered by a note posted by a friend on the subject of attending a Sting concert last week in Delhi, and the attendent speculations as to if this is a good thing. And at the same time I found in one of the Indian newspapers (which I don't closely follow anymore) about talks in Andhra Pradesh between the state goverment and P.W.G (Maoist naxalites). Also my paternal family had had a brush with one of these peasant movements in its begingings before disillusionment (I think) set in. So this gave me the idea for a novel set in the 80s, 90s and now, dealing with the intersection and collison of hi-tech city world with the Naxalite world outside. If I remember well R.E.C Warangal (the best engineering college in A.P.) was once where a crop of Naxalite leaders came from - folks in my childhood middle class mileu were scared of sending their kids to this R.E.C, lest they defect from the path of upward mobility and become 'revolutionaries'.

There is a novel here - only I have to find it. I also have to find an English translation of Mahasweta Devi's novel 'Hazaar Chaurasi Ki Maa' (Mother of 1084), as this seems to be the only novel dealing with this subject I know of, or was made aware of - do tell me if you know of any others.

1) Historical novel in the magical realistic vein – detailing the love affair of the architect of Taj (Ustad Ahmad Lahori/ Ustad Isa of Shiraz – I think however who this person is still in debate. See here for both some really wakco and sane theories/narratives: [A], [B], [C] ,[D], [E], [F], [G], [H], [I], [J] on this aspect of the building ) with a ‘native’ woman musician – mirroring the web of myths and tall tales surrounding the Taj.

2. A contemporary novel set in Hyderabad dealing with the intersection of the high technology world inside the city and Marxist ‘revolution’ in the countryside surrounding the city