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Touchstones
Beautiful people and writing with a wink
Ira Pande
 Two
books have created quite a stir in Delhi. The first, of course, is Natwar Singh’s memoir titled “One Life is not Enough”. Its author has been a very vocal acolyte of the Nehru-Gandhi family and worked closely with each one of them: Nehru, Indira Gandhi, Rajiv Gandhi and then Sonia Gandhi. Himself a diplomat of distinction, he joined active politics and was widely regarded as one of Sonia Gandhi’s closest confidants. This impression was endorsed by the fact that he could be seen discreetly in the background whenever a visiting foreign dignitary called on her at 10 Janpath.By now, every reader and TV viewer in India has been blitzed with countless TV interviews with Singh and the lengthy debates on what he has written and said. These include speculation about why he chose to break his silence and what he has to say about Sonia Gandhi’s style of functioning. Prime-time news anchors have had a great time predicting that the end of the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty is nigh and that the Congress party is on its last legs. The clamour for the removal of Rahul Gandhi and replacing him with his ‘more intelligent sister’, Priyanka, is now the latest subject of political gossip.
Natwar Singh signing his autobiography ‘One Life is not Enough’ for Sanjaya Baru before its release in New Delhi on Thursday. PTI |
Let us all admit that India has been fascinated by the Nehru-Gandhi family: some of this springs from the enormous respect and affection that most Indians have for Nehru and Indira Gandhi. Some comes from the fact that they are fair and beautiful and all Indians have a thing about that. Moreover, Sonia Gandhi, like her famous mum-in-law, wears beautiful clothes. All these may seem like frivolous reasons but, believe me, they add to the magic and mystique of celebrities. Look at the royal family of Britain: if they did not get a periodic infusion of glamour by marrying stars like Diana, would they have been able to keep their magic alive? A country needs its beautiful people to believe in fairy tales, so let us get that out of the way. Even America underwent a prolonged spell of Kennedy worship. Like the great Mughals, the downfall of the Congress began after the first five generations had passed on. It was said that the kingdom of Shah Alam, one of the last Mughals, merely extended from the Red Fort to Palam. Today, this is almost the state of the Sonia-led Congress. Historians may one day be able to take these analogies further and draw more serious conclusions but I am interested in what I see around me in Delhi. The very people who, till yesterday, were passionate supporters of the ‘Family’ are now talking of the arrogance of power and the need to groom new leaders. Natwar Singh’s memoir, coming as it does on the heels of Sanjaya Baru’s revelations, have exposed what was widely known but seldom admitted. Both writers emphasise the aloofness and autocratic style of 10 Janpath as a reason why several party workers feel alienated. India is a country that likes to see, feel and touch its leaders. Granted that security considerations have now made it difficult for political leaders to mingle freely with the people but when the general impression is that only a chosen few have access to them, there are bound to be rumblings of discontent. Magical spells have a limited span: and a rude awakening often follows when the spell breaks. Perhaps it is time the Grand Old Party moved beyond the Grand Old Family. The second book is a jollier topic. Readers of a prominent national newspaper awoke a few days ago to a full, front-page colour ad of Chetan Bhagat’s forthcoming novel, ‘Half Girlfriend’. The ad must have cost at least Rs 10 lakh or so, and not in my memory at least has any book been announced with such a splash. I have seen posh cars or expensive jewellery ads on the cover page but a book? Never. Clever Chetan had once again thumbed his nose at the conventional wisdom of the publishing industry’s marketing wing. His sponsor, the giant retailer Flipkart, had taken care of the expensive ad and Chetan Bhagat could afford to lead his publishers, Rupa, by the nose. The pre-orders that followed this ad crashed his site, so you can imagine what the scale of the eventual sales will be. That evening, I had the pleasure of a discussion with him on television along with Samit Basu, another young author. While I still have several reservations about the quality and gravity of the genre that Bhagat favours, I grant him full marks for forcing our desi publishers to stop moaning about how no one reads books any longer. They should open their eyes and ears to what the reader wants them to publish. If they only publish books that they want to see on the long-list of foreign awards, they will continue to see their sales dip. However, if they widen their publishing lists to include popular writers the story may be different. Orson Welles once famously declared: “I act in bad films so that I can afford to make good films.” If publishers can make their money from popular writers then they can afford to take publishing risks. They should learn from Rupa to take advice from a pro like Bhagat and, like the Gandhi family, come out of their ivory towers. That is where the real India and Bharat live.
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Muzaffar Ali’s