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Tabish Khair is an accomplished author and poet. He has won many awards and fellowships. His novels- The Bus Stopped, Filming- A Love Story and The Thing About Thugs, have been translated into many languages and been shortlisted for many prestigious prizes. He completed most of his education in a small town of Bihar, India and now lives in `C5rhus, Denmark. His irreverential and tongue-in-cheek style of writing ruffles a lot of feathers beneath its calm surface. How to Fight Islamist Terror from the Missionary Position is one of the few books whose beaming recommendations on the covers seem fully justified.
How to`85 looks at love through a contemporary glass –a matter of convenience, disposable for something more favourable and mostly as a glass half-full. Even then, the most sceptical ones too look for that one perfect love of their life. As real as love, religious fanaticism also figures as an equally potent undercurrent. The threat of terrorism is throbbing in the background, even in a relatively sedate neighbourhood. Khair puts life into all his characters while giving them shades of grey rather than making them completely good or bad. A fundamentalist Muslim teaching an eager Hindu the intricacies of Islam, a Muslim who defies every rule in the book and a girl so perfect that it irritates, the book is full of surprising contradictions. Its satirical and unapologetic tone regarding religion makes for a fresh perspective. Written lucidly, the book is a wonderful companion, to be read and re-read.
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R
It is a story, or an
account, of three men in Denmark, going on with the daily business of
living. Each one dragging with them burden from their pasts, ignoring
it, indulging it, fanning it and being shaped by it. All of them
belong to different backgrounds and still manage to find common
grounds for bonding despite the differences. Ravi, the only child of a
high-profile family in India, tries his best to shrug off any
connections with his past and goes to strange lengths to be nothing
like the people who were once his family. Even then his lifestyle and
choices reflect the secure background that he can fall back on anytime
his plans go awry. He is the quintessential rebel who cannot
completely cut-off ties that bind. Then there is Karim, the taxi
driver, who is also a devout Muslim. His demeanour is very careful and
calculated which raises many questions. Religious to a fault, he does
not indulge in light banter and is unable to comprehend it most of the
time. The third is the unnamed narrator, who is mostly referred to by
Ravi using a chosen profanity. His bias gives the story another
dimension.