Few writers of Indian origin have achieved as much success or notoriety as has Salman Rushdie. A news channel managed to do a scoop by getting him in front of the camera last night.
The media however has a penchant for controversies and seems to dwell on those issues that are irrelevant. For one, Rusdhie is in the news - or rather Parmeshwar Godrej was, for hosting a dinner for the former. And it is taking an ugly turn now. A Muslim faction is asking for a ban on Godrej products!!!
The truth of the matter. Rushdie was in Mumbai on a project of the Bill Gates Foundation to which even Parmeshwar Godrej is associated with. Rushdie was in India to do stories on HIV Aids across the country in the company of a dozen or more other well known writers, including Kiran Desai. Why doesn't the media highlight these facts so that people understand that it was not just a social happening. It happened for a reason and that reason is good! If this is the future, it will be futile to expect corporates or those related to the big brands - to participate in good causes.
The media should have publicised the good work that the Gates Foundation is doing and commended Rushdie for being part of this project which will help portray Aids in the country in the right manner. Rushdie incidentally is going to do a story on the Hijra community of Mumbai.
The interview itself covered myriad areas, all of which seemed interested enough. Rushdie was cool enough to talk about Padma, from whom he is now divorced. His next book, "The Enchantress of Florence" is going to be far from controversies, claims Rushdie. It is a book that might show me in new light, says he. (To be release in June 2008 by Random House.) As for the criticisms he gets from Indian writers - Pankaj Mishra gets a mention from the interviwer - he says, "These one and a half book novelists are of no importance. I guess we should look out for some fireworks from these writers!
Salman Rushdie is the author of 8 previous novels — Grimus, Midnight’s Children (for which he won the Booker Prize and the “Booker of Bookers”), Shame, The Satanic Verses, Haroun and the Sea of Stories, The Moor’s Last Sigh, The Ground Beneath Her Feet and Fury — and one collection of short stories, East, West. He has also published 5 works of non-fiction: The Jaguar Smiles, Imaginary Homelands, The Wizard of Oz, Mirrorwork and Step Across This Line.
