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Conversions
January 17, 2008

I'm in Mumbai, trying to map some of the ways and means of English-language writing and publishing.  

Surprise: they're many and multifaceted.  You may know about Penguin Books India and HarperCollinsIndia, but perhaps not about Rupa and Roli.  And about the seemingly thriving small-press scene, of which I am only beginning to scratch the merest surface in my browsing.  And the remarkable Oxford India books, major anthologies and compendiums that would fill enormous gaps where they to appear in the States.

It's night --- have just come back from a talk sponsored by the PEN All-India Centre by the Sociologist R.C. Heredia, who presented a very clear, passionate, and pointed analysis of several notable (and, here, perhaps even notorious) religious conversions, drawn from his new book.

He was introduced in part by Ranjit Hoskote, a poet and curator who is the former art critic of the Times of India, and who will be reading in New York this spring.

Am off to Delhi tomorrow.

Posted by Michael Scharf on January 17, 2008 | Comments (0)