Category Archives: Books

Introducing a new blog: Madhulika Reads

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As some of you probably know, I am not just a writer, but an avid reader as well. On an average, I read more than a hundred books a year, and that too just about every genre, every style: crime and detective fiction, humour, romance, historical fiction, horror. History, popular science, food and food history. About nature and wildlife, about old cinema. And much more.

For the past ten years, I’ve been a member of the book reading and reviews site, Goodreads.com. There, I’ve reviewed more than a thousand books over the years. I also review books for several publications.

About time, I decided, that I began a blog on which I review books (no, don’t worry; Dustedoff isn’t going anywhere; I’m still going to be blogging about old cinema).

Therefore: Madhulika Reads. Here, my reviews are somewhat different, longer and more detailed, from what I post on Goodreads. You can click this link to learn more about this blog.

I began writing reviews on this a few weeks back, so now there are several (not many!) reviews on Madhulika Reads. You can explore further by clicking the Fiction Books Reviewed and Non-fiction Books Reviewed pages to see what I’ve reviewed so far. I read at a speed of at least one book a week, so you can expect frequent additions to these pages. If you’re as avid a reader as I am, do follow this blog to look out for (and offer) recommendations, compare notes, and generally chat about books.

New Book: ‘The Pledge: Adventures to Sada’

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I have a new book out!

The Pledge: Adventures to Sada has been published by Speaking Tiger Books, and has been written in collaboration with film-maker Kannan Iyer, of Daud and Ek Thi Daayan fame (yes, finally my blog gets linked, even if it’s a tenuous link, to more recent cinema).

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Announcing a New Book: Indian Christmas

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“…the diversity of Christmas celebrations in different parts of the country, is what comes through most vividly in Indian Christmas. Some of India’s finest writers, form Jerry Pinto to Easterine Kire, from Hansda Sowvendra Shekhar to Rabindranath Tagore, are represented here.” Continue reading →

Announcing my New Book: ‘The Garden of Heaven’

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Many years ago, when I was a teenager, a cousin who was much older than me lent me a favourite book of hers: Edward Rutherfurd’s Sarum. Sarum was the ancient name of the city of Salisbury in Wiltshire, England, a place of great antiquity; and Rutherfurd’s Sarum is a novel about interconnected families, their stories playing out against a backdrop of history being created. Beginning with the Ice Age, these characters live their lives as Stonehenge is built, as the Romans invade and then establish a colony in England; as Salisbury Cathedral is erected, as the Black Death grips England… going right up to 1984, this was an epic book that made a huge impression on me. I couldn’t help wondering: given India’s long and fascinating history, wouldn’t it be satisfying to read a book similar to Sarum, but set in India?

Back then, I had no plans to someday become a writer. But finally, a few years back, when I’d written the Muzaffar Jang series and had learnt a good deal about the history of Delhi, Sarum came to mind again, and with it, that long-ago wish that someone would write an Indian equivalent.

Here it is: The Garden of Heaven, the first book in the Delhi Quartet. The Delhi Quartet will span 800 years of Delhi’s history, beginning shortly before the invasion of Mohammad Ghuri, and extending till just after Partition; the first 200 years of that stretch are covered in The Garden of Heaven.

The Garden of Heaven: Book of the Delhi Quartet
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Book Review: Jerry Pinto’s ‘Helen: The Life and Times of a Bollywood H-Bomb’

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I won’t go so far as to say that Helen was the first Hindi film actress I remember seeing (that would be Shakila, since CID was the first Hindi film I remember watching). But I distinctly remember being about 10 years old, watching Chitrahaar, and being very excited because an old favourite of mine, a song I had till then only heard and never seen, was going to come on (in Chitrahaar, there would always be a sort of intertitle between songs, a single frame in which the name of the next song, the film it was from, and the names of the music director, the lyricist, and the singer(s) would be listed).

This song was Mera naam Chin Chin Choo, and my feet were already tapping when it began. All that frenetic movement, those men in sailor suits dancing about. The energy, so electric that it even seemed to transmit itself to the musicians. The infectiousness of it all.

And Helen.

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Muzaffar Jang is back! Announcing: Crimson City

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(Plug alert: my latest novel, what it’s about, and some background)

Some of you who’ve been reading this blog for a while—or who know something of what I write about besides classic cinema—probably know by now that I am also the creator of a fictional 17th century Mughal detective named Muzaffar Jang. Muzaffar first appeared in a short story in a collection of South Asian women’s writing, called 21 Under 40. I had, however, already half-written a novel featuring this protagonist, and that book, set in the summer of 1656, went on to become the first full-length Muzaffar Jang novel, The Englishman’s Cameo, published by Hachette India in 2008.

Seven years later, and here I am, at the fourth book of the series.

Crimson City, the fourth book in the Muzaffar Jang series.

Crimson City, the fourth book in the Muzaffar Jang series.

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My Lawfully Wedded Husband and Other Stories

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My Lawfully Wedded Husband & Other Stories (Westland-Tranquebar, 2013) is a collection of black humour short stories: stories that have a hint (or more) of the macabre in them. A young girl, visiting her grandmother in Goa, witnesses the dramatic end of a romance. A passenger on a night train is told about a long-ago tragedy. A bored housewife cheats on her lawfully wedded husband. Some of these stories are more dark than the others; some are more humorous than not. My Lawfully Wedded Husband and Other Stories is available in major bookstores in India, and can be ordered online at Flipkart, Infibeam, Landmark, etc.