Well, not any more, as Amar Chitra Katha is planning a comic on Murthy’s life story. This is a first for ACK too, in the sense that till now, all their comics either portrayed mythological / religious characters or real life personalities who were no longer alive. Murthy will become the first living personality to be so profiled.

Sachin Tendulkar and APJ Abdul Kalam are likely to be next in line.

Nice way to revive the declining enthusiasm for reading comics among kids, though am not sure if it will work. With the omnipresent Internet, I’ve come across some parents proudly say their kid can switch on the computer and surf the net, but can’t read yet !!

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The Strand was a treasure trove and I used to frequent the place a lot, quite often just in the hope of finding a book I’d long wanted to own or even just browse around. Mr.Shanbag of course was always helpful and would even suggest books or authors similar to one’s interest. I remember asking him for the unabridged version of “The Scarlet Pimpernel”, which my Mom was keen to read, having seen that book once, many years ago. Unfortunately, this book was not available at the Strand, and Mr.Shanbag was quite vexed about that.

For a moment, it seemed difficult to comprehend he was no more, and I recall meeting him over a decade ago, when I was staying in Mumbai. I was always on the look out for book stores and especially those where I didn’t have someone always hovering around me. No doubt such people try to be helpful, but once in a book store, I prefer being left alone to explore all there is on offer.

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If you are a fan of Tehelka’s Tarun Tejpal, head over to Landmark (near Dorabjee’s) in Camp on February 13 at 6.30 pm. He will be reading excerpts from his latest book, The Story of My Assassins, as well as interacting with the assembled “litterati”. Some of you may have also read his earlier book, The Alchemy of Desire.

Personally, I’m not too sure I can be out of the office that early though, so am most likely to give it a miss…

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Ubuntu has been gaining ground on a host of other competing systems and is now among the most popular Linux distros out there.

If you’ve always wanted to give it a go and were looking for good, well written and free documentation, well, your search just ended…

A handy reference guide, Ubuntu Pocket Guide and Reference is a very good read and available from Amazon for just under $10. While I’m sure many would call that value for money, here’s where it gets even better.

You can get the full version of the book as a pdf, for free from the web site !! Go ahead and download your copy now.

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When I read stories about JFK’s assassination as a youngster, it really had me hooked, though of course, at the time I wasn’t aware about the political climate of the time or his other shenanigans and ‘sexploits’ !!

I even tried to get my hands on as many books as I could that dealt with this slice of history, and one of them, a book by Dr.Crenshaw, called JFK Conspiracy of Silence was pretty interesting as it had autopsy photos. Quite thought provoking, and it also raised several questions about the killing as well as Lyndon Johnson’s role during the aftermath.

Just happened to browse through it again today… it’s been 45 years now, and the mystery continues !!

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The 33 year old Indian’s debut novel, “The White Tiger” beat out other contenders like Irishman Sebastian Barry (The Secret Scripture), fellow Indian Amitav Ghosh (Sea of Poppies), Aussie Steve Toltz (A Fraction of the Whole), and Britishers Linda Grant (The Clothes on Their Backs) and Philip Hensher (The Northern Clemency), to land the Man Booker Prize for Fiction for 2008. The prize is worth £50,000. Born in Chennai, Adiga moved to Australia at the age of 15 and is now living in Mumbai. He dedicated the prize to the people of Delhi.

The novel paints a stark, dark picture of India that many know about but which is rarely discussed. As was to be expected, most Indians were divided in their opinions on this victory, with some feeling this was yet another attempt to pander to the fascination the Western world has with “poor” India, still the land of elephants and snake charmers to many !

For those who are interested in “records”;

• He is the 5th author of Indian ethnicity to win the prize, after V S Naipaul (1971), Salman Rushdie (1981), Arundhati Roy (1997) and Kiran Desai (2006). It is a moot point whether Naipaul would like to be part of this list, though !!
• Adiga is the 2nd youngest winner ever. The youngest was Ben Okri, who was 32 when he won in 1991. Incidentally, Kiran Desai is the youngest ever woman author to win the prize.
• He is also the 3rd author to win the Booker with a debut novel, the others being Arundhati Roy in 1997 and DBC Pierre in 2003.

I’ve yet to the read this book, which came out earlier this year. Personally, I’ve also felt the Booker prize is somewhat like the Oscars or Grammys, where the favourite often trips, and which usually throws up a relatively unknown winner.

Delicious irony ? You bet !!

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Nostalgia time folks !! All those who grew up reading that lovely comic Amar Chitra Katha have cause to rejoice. Happened to chance upon ACK Media’s comic in it’s digital avatar along with a host of other offerings like free and paid digital comics, a wiki style information source, aptly called ACK Pedia. It is also possible to submit stories and artwork.

The site itself is quite neatly laid out with easy to browse selections and it is fun to look at those covers again, along with Tinkle, the comic we read as kiddies before ‘graduating’ to the more ‘serious’ ACK titles !

I was intrigued by the thought of actually having the entire collection and hopped over to the link. Out of a total collection of 439 titles, they currently have 242 in print, along with 6 special issues (Valmiki’s Ramayana, Dasha Avatar, Jesus Christ, Bhagawat – The Krishna Avatar, Mahabharata (Set Of 3 Book’s) and Ram Charit Manasa).

This entire collection is available for Rs.10,340 (includes free shipping within India), which comes to around Rs.42 per comic and I think it is a decent enough price at today’s rates. I think I still have some of them lying in our ‘box of books’, along with other comics like Phantom, Mandrake, Bahadur and Flash Gordon, and am mulling the prospect of adding the ones I don’t have. Acquiring a slice of childhood memories, if you will !!

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